The Definition of Weakness
by Sweet but Psycho
Summary: Silver always says how he hates weakness, but what IS weakness? Where does it become strength? My team may not be the best, but I wouldn't call them weak. Silver calls me weak, Silver calls me stupid, Silver calls me crazy. Well, so is he. SilverxOC
1. Escape

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Full Summary: Mica, a 17 year old girl from the Almia region runs away from her overly controlling father to make her life as a trainer. Even without a direct goal, there are many obstacles in her future and from her past that she finds she has to overcome to give her pokemon the life they deserve. Once she hits Johto yet another obstacle arises in the form of a nasty, red-headed boy named Silver, who has his own hidden demons to deal with.

**A/N: I've been making Mica's story in my head for about…umm, a year and a half now? It's about time she gets documented.**

**Disclaimer: I hate writing these, so this one counts for the entire story. I own neither pokemon, nor any of the characters therein. I only own this plot and my OCs (Mica AND her team). Apart from that, I own nothing. **

* * *

Many citizens yelled in surprise and irritation as a small girl with a cyndaquil on her shoulder tore through them at a sprint. A blast could be heard from a boat sounding its final horn before departure. The girl pumped her legs harder, desperate to get on that boat before it left. The cyndaquil, whom she had nicknamed Horatio at some point or another, squealed in encouragement from her shoulder, perhaps to compensate for the extra weight she had to carry with him there. The girl didn't have a pokeball for him, since she had simply befriended him a while back, and pokeballs were extremely hard to obtain in Almia, and all the other regions where rangers ruled. There was also no way he could run fast enough to keep up with the girl's long strides, being just a small cyndaquil. Nonetheless, they still made it past the crowds in the centre of town and to the small port Pueltown was so proud of. Luckily, there was no one at the port itself which made it easy for the duo to take a leap of faith off the edge, over the water (with Horatio screaming all the way) and-yes! - onto the boat.

The first thing they did was look for a hiding spot. The boat they were on was large and flat, Mica rather thought that it was an empty garbage barge, since Almia was used by many other regions as a dumping site for their own garbage. There was a small hatch in the ground near Mica's feet, and by peering inside she found it to be a storage space with a few small boxes in it and was, luckily enough, large enough for both of them to fit in. Once the duo was sufficiently hidden from view the girl settled down with the wall at her back and Horatio leapt from her shoulder to snuggle in her arms.

"_Where are we going Mica?_" Horatio asked, in pokespeak of course, but Mica had gotten to know him well enough by now to be able to understand him perfectly, not to mention anticipate what he was going to say most of the time. They were best friends, and knew each other inside and out.

"No idea," she replied in a whisper. "But we'll get off in the next region we come to. It's best to keep it random, so that Father can't guess where I went, not that he'll have expected me to jump on a boat. It'll be hours before he notices that I'm gone, so even if he did realize I jumped on a boat he won't be able to pinpoint the destination of the boat based off the time." Mica deliberately used 'I' instead of 'we' when talking about what her father knew, since she was very careful that he didn't find out she had a pokemon; it would have been yet another way he could use to bully her.

Horatio nodded and trilled happily at the logic of this plan. Mica smiled down at him, happy to be with her partner. Without him, she realized, she never would have had the guts to pull a stunt like this- it was only because of his encouragement and an overwhelming urge to protect him from her father that finally prompted Mica into this. She hugged him closer.

"Horatio today is the first day of the rest of our lives! We will land wherever this ship is due, and hit the ground running. We shall make new friends, learn new things, and become a strong team together. I swear to you, that I, Mica Kincaid, and you, Horatio the cyndaquil, will become an inseparable force of nature!" she suddenly burst in a heated whisper. Horatio, though disconcerted, nodded in agreement and rested his head into Mica's stomach, perhaps in an attempt to get his overly dramatic partner to go to sleep too, before more outbursts followed the first- which was somewhat of a pattern with her. Mica chuckled slightly, a little bit giddy at her own escape, and decided to take a nap as well.

* * *

When the pair woke up it was to the sound of many voices and the sound of heavy footsteps way above them. Horatio was looking up towards the sounds, worried, as was Mica that the crew would come look in their hiding spot to retrieve something from one of the boxes and find a teenager and a cyndaquil instead. Mica couldn't hear a motor running, so she assumed they had hit land. Horatio and Mica made their way out of the hiding spot and cautiously peeked to ensure that it was empty out on the deck, which it wasn't. There were about half a dozen crew members milling about and pretending to do their jobs. Or at least that's how it looked to Mica. Regardless, they didn't seem to be about to leave anytime soon. Since Mica didn't feel like waiting until it was time to retrieve whatever was in the crates behind her, she tried to casually stroll across the deck and off the boat, thinking that no one would pay her any particular attention if she didn't draw attention to herself. And when that didn't work and one of the workers saw the obviously out of place duo and alerted the others with a yell-

"Turbo… _charge!_" was Mica's battle cry as she hauled ass across the deck, over the railing, and onto the port below. The two kept running, Mica laughing her head off and Horatio cowering into Mica's neck, until they were in a busy street in the city beyond the pier. They reached an impressive looking building, which the sign outside told her was the Canalave City Library.

_Canalave City huh? Which region is that in, I wonder? Think Mica! Remember those geography books…God those were such lame books. Hmmmm, is it worth remembering all those stupid details, and standing out here looking like an idiot when there could be more clues inside? _She wondered.

"Not a chance!" Mica answered herself out loud, startling Horatio, who had wandered over to sniff at the flowers in the garden outside the library. "Come, my partner! To the inners of the looming tower of knowledge!" she brazened, charging full tilt into the library, with Horatio pumping his short little legs hard to keep up with his rash trainer.

_She seems so happy, and we've only been gone a few hours. Then again, I'm very happy too…to be gone from her crazily strict father! He hardly ever let Mica be alone; he was always breathing down her neck while she was doing chores and constantly popping into her room to check what she was doing. We hardly ever got to play together; it's certainly nice now to be out in the open with her like this. It's no wonder she's exalting in this sudden freedom. _Horatio bumped into her legs as she came to an abrupt halt. Looking up at her face, he saw Mica wearing an expression of obvious discomfort as she was being chastised by the librarian behind the counter for her 'rudeness and disrespect'. It was lucky Horatio was out of sight. Somehow, Mica thought that this woman would not be the kind to let a technically wild pokemon free around her precious books. Apologizing profusely, she and Horatio made their way up to the second floor.

Once on the second floor, Mica began wondering how any of these books would give her a hint as to what region she was in. Maybe if she looked at where they were published? But no, they were all published in various regions. Mica was now beginning to doubt her plan to check the library for what region she was in. Was she even anywhere near the section that held geography books?

_Argh! Second thoughts be gone!_

As she was standing there silently stressing she didn't notice her partner wander off to examine a man reading a book not too far away. He had piqued the cyndaquil's interest with the formal way he dressed; he was in a purple suit made of what appeared to be silk, with purple tinted glasses over his eyes, which struck Horatio as an odd combination. He went over to investigate (though he wasn't entirely sure what he would learn simply by getting closer to the man) and sniffed at his pant leg, curious if his sent would be as contradictory to his suit as his glasses were. The man looked down from his book and smiled at the little creature.

"Well hello there, little guy. What are you doing up here?" the man asked, bending over to stroke Horatio's nuzzle. His voice, though soft, was still the only sound in the library, and Mica looked over to see her partner trilling happily as a man who looked to be in his mid to late twenties stroked him. He was tall and slim, with a rather pale complexion, eyes that Mica thought could be grey behind his glasses and chin length, wavy violet hair. She walked over to collect her pokemon, giving up on the library. She felt somewhat self conscious about her appearance in front of the meticulously dressed man. Her long, straight hair that was either dirty blond or mousy brown (she could never decide which, though she was positive that the two differently coloured streaks framing her face were blond…just like her father) was probably tangled, since she hadn't had time to brush it. Her clothes were the same ones she wore yesterday, her backpack was rather ragged and old, and her eyes probably had bags under them from her poor sleep on the ship. This was really the only bit that upset Mica; she was very proud of her eyes. They were an extremely bright blue around the outer edge of the iris, but changed to an equally bright green near the pupil.

"Hey, what's this? You're going to abandon me as soon as we get here?" she teased, picking Horatio up and laughing at his sincere squeal of denial.

"That's a rare pokemon to see here," the man said, smiling at Mica, who simply looked confused. "Oh, sorry let me introduce myself. I am Lucian, of the Sinnoh League Elite Four," he said, misinterpreting Mica's confusion but answering her silent question nonetheless.

"_SINNOH!_" Mica shouted in happy revelation at the top of her lungs, startling everyone within earshot (which was most of the library).

**Mica's journey begins! I know I said Johto in the summary, but she starts in Sinnoh. Don't worry; she'll get to Johto…soon.**

**I'll sic Horatio on whoever dares not to review. He's not that fierce yet but he'll get there eventually!**


	2. Trust

Horatio was looking at Mica with an expression that was both embarrassed and a little frightened. Realizing what she had just done, Mica covered her mouth with both hands and her eyes grew wide in a classic shocked expression.

"Excuse me, but do you _mind_? Some people are trying to read, so you can just leave if you're going to shout nonsense," snapped a very irritated looking girl who had been engrossed in the books in front of her since Mica first saw her.

"Sorry, sorry! I don't know what came over me," Mica apologized, though she knew full well what came over her: the blazing sense of victory!

"Er, are you ok?" Lucian asked, seeming rather alarmed and concerned at her sudden outburst.

"Yes, I'm fine. It's just, I was on a boat and I didn't know where I was going so when I got here I was trying to figure out what region I was in, and then you just told me and it made me really happy?" By the end of her explanation she had somehow turned it into a question. The explanation sounded absolutely ridiculous, even to her own ears.

"Oh, so are you region-hopping as a trainer then?" Lucian asked, desperately trying to make sense of the strange teen in front of him.

"Um, no. I actually have no clue what the first thing to being a trainer is," muttered Mica, realizing this statement for the first time. She really didn't know anything, she had never gone to trainer's school because ranger school was the only thing available in Almia and she was forbidden to go even to that by her father. Her brain began assaulting her with a barrage of questions and doubts. How did someone even catch a pokemon? What would she do if Horatio got hurt? How did she get food? How do you even battle? _Why_ do you even battle? What was the goal of battling, in the long run? It was then that Mica realized she was just as clueless on how to live on her own as to be a trainer. Horatio must have sensed her sudden panic; he reached up to her face and tried to calm her by nuzzling his snout into her neck, which she usually loved. Now, however, she was too wrapped up in her worries to notice.

"So why did you jump on a boat if you didn't know where it was going?" Lucian questioned, now seriously concerned for the girl before him. After she answered his last question she just stood there looking terrified for a solid minute before Lucian interrupted her, apparently distracting, thoughts. What was this girl doing?

"No I just…wanted to travel," Mica replied lamely, snapping back to reality. She didn't seem able to give this helpful man any satisfactory answers, which made her sad. She decided to ask one of him instead.

"So what's the Sinnoh League Elite Four?" she questioned, working to make her voice chipper again.

_Wow, she really doesn't know anything about being a trainer. _Lucian realized. However, her cyndaquil seemed like a very happy young thing, if a little weak. And she most definitely loved and trusted it, and it her. She seemed so sincere; it couldn't hurt to give her a few pointers before she headed off on her own, could it? He considered for a moment, and then made his decision.

"In overly simplified terms, it means I'm a very powerful trainer. But I have a different question for you," he said, smiling as the girl brightened up, apparently eager to please. "It worries me to think of someone with obviously no knowledge about being a trainer responsible for the well being of themselves and their pokemon. I think it would be best if I taught you the basics before you head off on your journey. Would you be ok with that?" He smiled, already being able to guess her answer.

"That would be beyond fabulous!" She squealed, earning another _shhhh! _from the girl examining books and a surprised '_hey_' from her partner. "My name's Mica, by the way, and this is Horatio," she said, gesturing to her pokemon and completely ignoring the girl.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," he smiled. "I do have to stay close to my workplace though. I'll give you a lift to the Sinnoh League with Gallade. Is that ok?" he questioned, and was given a happy nod in response. "Have you ever teleported somewhere?" he enquired.

"Nope," Mica said, following in step behind Lucian as he led the way out of the library.

"Well, I'm sorry that I have to make you have your first experience. It isn't pleasant." He gave her a small, somewhat apologetic smile as they exited the library and he released his Gallade. "You might want to return Horatio to his pokeball, it'll be rough to transport four different bodies."

"Er, Horatio doesn't have a pokeball," Mica muttered, the feeling of inadequacy returning at this latest admittance to her ignorance. Lucian almost face palmed at this latest revelation, but decided to spare the girl of the embarrassment.

"Well, we'd better go buy him one." He sighed. "It'd be dangerous for him to remain technically wild; he could be caught by another trainer, and once a pokemon is caught that's that," Lucian told her, heading off in the direction of the city's pokemart. "I'll pay," he added, guessing-correctly- that in addition to having no equipment or knowledge, this girl probably also lacked funds.

They made their way over the bridge in the centre of town (Mica being very sure to stay in the middle of the bridge and keep her eyes forward- she was none too fond of bridges) with Mica and Horatio still trailing slightly behind the infinitely more experienced man, wondering why he was making such a fuss over her. Once they got there Lucian bought her not one but six pokeballs, waving off her denial at what Mica thought of as splurging. Horatio of course put up no fight to being stuffed inside the little ball, and was properly caught within a matter of seconds.

"Shall we be off then?" he asked after they left the store, turning to Gallade, whom he hadn't bothered to replace back into his ball. Mica nodded, and Gallade promptly began the process of teleportation- which was more complicated than it looked, especially with three bodies to move.

The trio reappeared seconds later at the entrance to the Sinnoh Pokemon League, though Mica did not take particular notice of the grand building; she was a bit too preoccupied with staying conscious.

_That-that felt like…_

"Like a million tiny Carvana were eating apart my cells and throwing them up again!" Mica finished out load, unable to think of a better simile. Lucian gave her an odd look, but decided to ignore this recent outburst. Gallade, however, looked a little insulted. Lucian chuckled slightly, and turned to console his overly arrogant pokemon's pride.

Meanwhile, Mica looked down at the pokeball that now held her partner. It was a bit bigger than a tennis ball, and smooth and cold to the touch. Mica decided she didn't like it; it wasn't that it felt unnatural to hold, she simply preferred having Horatio out and in on the action where he belonged. She pointed the ball at the ground and pressed the button in the middle, releasing her best friend onto the ground in front of her. Horatio squealed and shook his entire body after he materialized.

"_Don't put me back in there!_" he pleaded, looking up at Mica with disconcerted eyes.

"What's it like in there?" Mica asked, curious.

"_Cramped._"

"Well yeah, I could figure that out by looking at the tiny thing! I mean, is there any scenery, is it all black, or all white, or does it look just like the inside of this thing?" she specified, peering into the now-vacant pokeball. Horatio considered for a second, and then replied:

"_Dark._"

"You're all for the one word answers today, huh? Ah well. Don't worry, I like you better out here too." Horatio looked rather relieved at this and allowed Mica to scoop him up in her arms so he could scramble onto her shoulder. Mica turned to look at Lucian, who had since returned Gallade to his pokeball and was smiling serenely at them. Mica thought there might have been a hint of…satisfaction in his smile.

"Well, shall we head inside?" he asked, gesturing to the looming castle-like structure in front of them. Mica gave a slight nod after giving the building a somewhat incredulous look.

_How…how did I not see that building before? It's positively massive! There weren't any buildings like this back in Almia…or Fiorre, for that matter. _

As they walked, Lucian began explaining the point of the Sinnoh League, inadvertently solving another one of Mica's internal dilemmas.

"Very few members of the Sinnoh League actually take up residence in this building; in fact, it's only the five of us- that battle anyway. Of course, there is also the planning committee, the maintenance workers, and the like. But trainers don't have to worry about them. The other eight members of the Sinnoh League are in gyms scattered across the region, they are called gym leaders, and generally specialize in a certain type of pokemon. If a trainer can defeat a gym leader- whom are stronger-than-average trainers- than they are awarded that gym's badge.

"If a trainer can defeat all eight gyms, than they are eligible to compete in the Sinnoh League tournament, which pits all the trainers who registered against each other to see who the strongest is, tournament style. If a trainer can win the tournament, than they are eligible to challenge the Elite Four, directly after the tournament and as many times after that if they wish. If a trainer can defeat the Elite Four, whom also specialize in a certain type, than they may challenge the Champion- though if they lose against the Champion than the next time they want to challenge the League they have to start with the Elite Four again. And if they can defeat the Champion than they get to become the next Champion. However, any member of the Sinnoh League can challenge the Champion at any time without having to win the tournament or challenge the Elite Four first. Understand?" he asked. Mica nodded in affirmation; Lucian was a little surprised she let him get through that entire speech without interrupting or asking questions. Her random outbursts from before gave him the impression that she was the out going type, and her sudden quietness confused him.

As the three of them passed through the lobby Lucian gave a quick glance around for any challengers that he might have to deal with today. There were a few old faces, but no one that Lucian thought could have grown enough to potentially reach him, he noted with satisfaction. He looked at Mica and noticed Horatio again reached out and nuzzled his snout into her neck, this time with more response from Mica though. She giggled and scooped Horatio against her chest to hug him against her.

_Not that I particularly miss her randomness- it can be unnerving sometimes- but she's probably feeling really nervous right now. As bold as she seems, I remember how easily her father used to control her, and now she's basically in the control of another older man. He's offering to teach us, that's kind of taking the role of father, right? Even though I don't think he seems nasty it'll still take Mica a while to trust him. But he can really teach us a lot…_

Mica looked down into her partner's eyes and realized the reason for his sudden cheery disposition. She gave him a small smile that clearly said 'I know why you're acting like this, and I really appreciate it'.

The three of them had gone past the lobby and through a few sets of doors and hallways by know and were arriving in what appeared to Mica to be a rec room. There was another man in it, a boy really, with green hair that had a bit sticking strait up on the top of his head who looked to be close to Mica's age.

"Mica, this is Aaron, he's another Elite Four member. Aaron, this is Mica. She is just starting out and needs someone to teach her the basics of training," Lucian said by way of introduction. Aaron smiled and gave Mica a cheery "hey" which she returned with a "hey" of her own. "There are bathrooms just around the corner from here if you want to wash up. I'll wait here for you," he invited, much to Mica's relief. She agreed and promptly dashed in the direction of the bathroom.

"Where'd you find her?" Aaron asked Lucian as soon as the girl was out of the room. "She looked kind of lost".

"I think she is," Lucian replied, a tone of concern in his voice. There was a few seconds of silence between the two, and then Aaron announced that he had a challenger to take care of.

"No one you have to worry about. Just that Lucas bloke again. That kid just doesn't know when to quit," he added the last bit under his breath as he sauntered out of the room, leaving Lucian alone with his thoughts.

The bathroom, though nothing particularly special, still boasted a nice sink and shower (and toilet of course, but that's kind of a given in a bathroom). Mica surveyed herself in the bathroom mirror, and decided that the damage wasn't as bad as she thought. Her eyes had slight bags under them, but nothing really too bad. Her clothes were fine, and her hair, though it could use a brushing, wasn't too tangled or greasy; just a little stringy.

"Still, I think I'll take advantage of this showering opportunity," she decided and regretfully returned Horatio- who she had plunked onto the counter- to his pokeball.

* * *

Feeling refreshed and clean again, Mica dressed in much the same we dressed everyday; in jeans and a white tank top with her favourite purple vest overtop to cover up the fact that most of her tank tops were low-quality and could easily be seen through. She towel-dried her hair and gave it a brush, then collected her bag and Horatio's pokeball, which she cracked open to release her partner as she was heading down the hall back to the rec room.

"Ah you're done," Lucian said as she walked into the room. "Since you seem to know little to nothing about battling, I figured we'd start with the basics. The practice ring is this way," he said as he led her to the ring that was reserved for Elite Four members and the Champion. As such, it was vacant when they got there, and Lucian instructed Mica to take her position at one end of the ring while he moved to the other. Despite the fact that this girl had suddenly become very withdrawn, Lucian rather thought that it would be best for her to learn how to battle hands on. He sent out Bronzong, whom he instructed to use Iron Defence to avoid damage from Mica and Horatio's tentative attacks which grew in confidence as he continued to instruct them.

They practiced for over an hour, until Horatio became too exhausted to continue. He trilled in exhausted pride as Mica scooped him up and praised him, and Lucian showed her to one of the rooms that were used by challengers to the League for her to sleep in and unpack her (few) things. When they returned the next day it was to find Flint already there and training his infernape and magmortar. Lucian decided to teach her instead the technical aspects to training, beginning with the most basic yet lengthiest aspect; type advantages.

This pattern continued for a couple months; Lucian and Mica training in the ring when it was available and doing book work when it was not. It soon got to the point where strength was no longer as much of an issue, so Lucian switched to Gallade to give Mica and Horatio some target practice.

After about a month Lucian could see Mica begin to relax in his presence, seemingly comfortable enough to again speak whatever errant thought was on her mind or make random jokes that only she and Horatio seemed to understand. Lucian rather thought that Mica was finally beginning to trust him; which she confirmed one night when the two of them were sitting outside after training for almost two hours.

It was dusk, and in the heat of the summer the cool breeze that was blowing felt nice on all of their skins. Mica turned to Lucian, seemed to judge him for a few seconds, and told him of her life back in Almia.

"It must have seemed kind of random to just jump on a boat to another region, but I needed to go _somewhere_. My dad…he always had to control everything I did, and I always had to abide by all of his stupid rules, or I would be locked in my room for a month. I remember once I forgot to brush my teeth before bed, and he actually felt my toothbrush to see if it was wet, and when he found it dry I was grounded for a week. He criticised everything I did, and I had to keep Horatio a secret from him, or he would use him to control me more. I could hardly ever spend time with Horatio, and I could see he was really unhappy. So I took him and jumped on a boat." She gave a small laugh at the seeming absurdity at this last comment. "I-I want to thank you for teaching me all of this stuff. I feel like I can actually give Horatio the life he deserves now." She said the last sentence quietly, and hugged Horatio closer to her.

It was then that Lucian realized just how alone this girl must have felt; he assumed that since she hadn't mentioned her mother she was out of the picture indefinitely. He felt his heart go out to her as she sat there hugging her partner, and just put his arm around the teen in the hopes to comfort her. She had come to like the other members of the League, but they weren't put in a position of power over her, and Lucian felt proud that he had managed to get her to trust him, despite how suspicious she must have been of him at first; it occurred to him that she was probably comparing him to her father, which would explain how withdrawn she had become.

They sat like that for a while, and then Lucian announced that he thought she knew enough to start her own journey. "Everything else you need to know has to be learned from experience," he told her.

"But I don't want to challenge the Sinnoh League," she muttered. Though she doubted she would be able, she had gotten to know everyone here and didn't want to strip any of them of their position.

"I didn't think you would. But there are other regions you can go to. I think Johto is a good choice for you; it's quite common for trainers to keep their pokemon out of their pokeballs, and a lot of trainers choose to start their journey there. Just promise to call me often to keep me updated." He smiled at her, and she looked up and smiled back, both nervous and excited to go out on her own now that she had the proper knowledge.

* * *

**A/N Now here's a nicer length, methinks.**

**Anyway, pleaseeeeeeeeeeee review. The threat with Horatio didn't work as well as I'd hoped, so instead I'll sic Mica herself on you!**


	3. Experience

**A/N: Just as a side note, when I had someone else read the previous chapters, they kept pronouncing Mica's name wrong. So, to my (few) regular readers, it is pronounced MY-kah. Long 'i' sound. Not MEE-kah, that is a band that we all know and love. Or that I know and love, anyway. Good ol' Mika. Mica's name actually came from a horse I used to ride. She was perrrty. **

**And I thought I should tell you guys the actual ages of everyone: **

**Mica: 17**

**Silver: 17 **

**Lucian: 27**

**And there you have it. Well, enjoy the first Johto chapter!**

* * *

Lucian escorted Mica back to Canalave City. He bought her a ticket for a ferry to Olivine City, and gave her money to purchase a bus ride to New Bark town, where he recommended she start her journey.

"Make sure you visit professor Elm while you're there," he told her as they were waiting for the ferry to arrive. "He'll be able to give you a trainer's card, start up funds, and possibly a pokedex too, if he thinks you have potential," he smiled. "Tell him that an Elite Four member sent you, and you probably will find you get a pokedex."

"And where do I go from there?" Mica asked. "Just wander wherever my legs decide to lead me?" This question had been plaguing her mind for a while; she didn't understand how trainers just always seemed to know exactly where to go.

"Well, you can ask Elm where to go from New Bark town, and from there a Nurse Joy should be able to direct you on the easiest route to the next possible town. I'm sure you'll pick up a map somewhere along the way as well," Lucian replied.

"And if I get lost on that 'easy route'?" Mica asked.

"Well, that's why they call it an adventure. But anyway, I believe that's the ferry approaching. Do you have everything?" Lucian asked as they got up and Mica prepared to join the queue waiting to board the ferry. Mica nodded, and the three of them (Horatio was again lingering outside of his pokeball) chatted as they waited and exchanged good byes as it was time to board.

Mica stood by the railing, waving at Lucian's shrinking frame as the boat began to depart, feeling a little sad that she was leaving him behind. But she knew she could call him anytime, and could also tune in to the battle channel while she was in a town to see if he was taking on any challengers. Still, she sighed slightly as she and Horatio made their way to their designated room. It was nothing special; plain wallpaper covered walls that smelled slightly musty, and it boasted only a bed and a table, but it was still leagues above crouching in a storage space on a garbage barge.

Horatio and Mica both agreed that they would stay in their own room for the duration of the trip; one of the crew members told Mica that there were strong trainers aboard itching for a battle, and she knew Horatio wasn't strong enough to deal with battles that high-levelled yet.

The two spent most of the time chatting about what they would be doing in Johto. The kinds of pokemon that they would catch seemed to take up most of the conversation; Mica was all for a water pokemon, while Horatio wanted another fire-type pokemon to make friends with. When they got bored of that, Mica decided to check how much longer they had to go until they hit land. However, Mica was still weary of other trainers, and so decided sneakiness would be the best way to make her way to a crew member.

She peaked out her door- with Horatio perched on her should and glancing about too- and decided the coast was clear. With what she considered as refined ninja-like skills, Mica darted down the narrow hallway on tip-toes and pressed herself up against the wall when she came to the corner. There was one more hallway to go, and then the stairs to the deck.

Halfway down this next hallway, someone had left their luggage out in the hall in what Mica considered to be misplaced trust in their fellow passengers. However, it did provide a good place to hide behind, and so, ensuring that there was no one lingering in either of the halls, Mica darted over to the luggage and at the final moment performed a summersault behind it. Horatio, who had hung on throughout this entire journey, could not quite handle this unexpected manoeuvre and toppled off Mica's shoulder halfway through the summersault, leaving him sitting in the middle of the hallway and in plain sight of anybody passing by, much to Mica's horror.

Mica began making energetic waving motions with her hands to try and wave her partner back over; Horatio, however, simply looked at her, cocked his head slightly to one side, and continued down the hallway without her.

_I wonder if she realizes she can just refuse to battle if someone asks her, _Horatio pondered thoughtfully as he made his way towards the stairs. He turned to look back at the sound of a slight 'hmph' from his partner as she got up from her hiding place and walked over to join him.

"Your courage is inspiring, my friend," she told him, sounding completely serious. "It compels me to hide from no one!" Horatio just looked up at her and waited for her to bend over and scoop him up to replace him on her shoulder, which she did a second later.

The crew member they found outside told her that they were still a few hours away from their destination. Mica pouted slightly at this news, thanked him anyway and began making her way back to her room. On the way back, however, the luggage just sitting out in the hall caught her attention, and she again marvelled at the trust its owner must have in their fellow passengers.

"Horatio, I believe…mischief beckons!" she declared, pausing as she reached the luggage in the hall.

"_No…I don't think it does._" Horatio muttered, hoping to guide his trainer away from whatever act she was considering committing.

"Oh, indeed it does my friend!" she refuted her partner's meek attempts to sway her. "And in the most severe degree as well. We shall confound this luggage's owner by moving their things…slightly to the left!" she said, grabbing a hold of the luggage and indeed beginning to move it to the left. If Horatio's arms were long enough, he would have face palmed, but decided that she could have decided to do something much worse. "And if, upon our return, the luggage has not been ushered into the proper room, we shall move it farther to the left. So far that it will reside in our own quarters!" she declared as she finished moving the things and began to dart off back to their room.

Horatio was unconcerned about this last part; he knew that Mica would most likely forget about the luggage within a matter of minutes. Back in their room, there was still nothing interesting to do, and so Mica proposed they take a nap, to which Horatio promptly agreed; it would only help Mica forget about her promise to steal the other passenger's things.

* * *

When they woke it was to an announcement that the ship had landed in Olivine City, and the passengers were now to make their way off the boat. Mica grabbed her bag (Lucian had helped her shop for and buy the basic necessities that a trainer should pack) and made her way off the boat, Horatio resting on her shoulder. The two stopped into a pokecentre for a bite to eat and decided to spend the night there and head off to New Bark town the next morning.

They woke the next morning, collected their things and headed off to locate the bus stop, which Nurse Joy said was just around the corner. Mica was a little disappointed that they weren't going to be able to see the city, which was situated by the sea and adorned with flags everywhere. But she wanted to catch an early bus.

After a few minutes of waiting at the bus stop, the great polluting beast rolled its way up and rumbled to a stop in front of them. Mica chose a free seat halfway down the aisle and watched the scenery glide past the window. The bus traveled all across Johto, and so made a few stops in other towns on its way to New Bark Town. The towns seemed to grow smaller and smaller in size, until finally they reached the miniscule town of New Bark. It was mid morning by the time they reached their stop, and Mica was quite ready to get out and stretch her legs.

_Seems like an odd spot for a research lab _Mica thought as she looked around the town. A gentle breeze flowed through and pushed the sills on the multiple windmills that were scattered around the town in lazy circles. The houses were small, and there was no pokemart or pokecentre to be found. In fact, the only building that wasn't a house was the research lab, which was a couple stories high and monstrous next to the modest homes surrounding it, making it easy to spot. _Maybe he's actually a mad scientist, and is relying on the guise of a small town to hide his evil deeds! _

Despite the possibility of coming face to face with a mad scientist, Mica knew she needed a trainer's card and start up funds, and so summoned the courage to knock on the door. She was answered by a skinny man with black hair and glasses. When he spoke, it was with the reedy quavering often associated with nerds.

"Can I help you?" he asked, taking in the teen and her cyndaquil as they stood on the threshold.

"Er, yes. You see, I'm just starting out as a trainer, and I was told to see professor Elm to get my trainer's card and such. Are you him?" she asked, feeling a little awkward but trying to remain polite to a possible ally nonetheless.

"Ah, I see. Of course. No, I'm not Elm, I'm just his aide. You chose a good time to come by, we've only just started setting everything up for today's research. Professor Elm likes to sleep in. Please, come in," he gestured her inside, and asked what her name was. Mica introduced herself and Horatio as they were walking to the back of the lab, which was filled with whirring gadgets and blinking machines.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did you come by that cyndaquil? Even if it is classified as a Johto starter pokemon, it's a rare find; the only ones I've ever seen are the ones in this lab, which is obviously not where you found that little guy." He asked her eagerly.

"Er, well…" Mica was a little unsure of how to answer. It was a couple years ago that she found Horatio; she had been walking in the forest-one of her favourite pastimes, since it didn't include her father watching her every move- when it started to rain. She was hurrying back to the house when she noticed the little fire mouse stuck in the rain with no visible shelter. It didn't strike her as odd at the time to come upon such a rare pokemon, she just felt sorry for the little guy and scooped him up to sneak into her room. After that, Horatio just kind of never left; and soon became her closest friend. She had named him after a Shakespearean character, the best friend of Hamlet and one of the few characters who didn't die or become insane or an asshole. It suited him.

Mica was saved the trouble of answering this, however, when a large metallic groaning could be heard up ahead, along with another, less reedy but still slightly nerdy voice saying: "No, Totodile, no! Argh, not again!"

Mica and the aide came upon a slightly unlikely scene; a small, blue, crocodile-like pokemon that Mica assumed was Totodile was gnawing on what looked to Mica to be scrap metal, but she assumed from the wires creeping out of it that it had once been a piece of machinery. The totodile looked quite content; the sandy blond, tall, thin man beside him though, looked rather distressed. He looked up and, in noticing Mica and Horatio, gave the two a slightly perplexed look. The aide didn't seem about to introduce them (he was busy trying to prise Totodile off the remainders of the machine) so Mica figured she ought to do it herself.

"Hello professor! I'm Mica, and this is my partner Horatio, and we were told to come see you about getting a trainer's card and start up funds. I'm a new trainer, you see," she said cheerily, and Horatio gave a the man a cheery greeting as well before jumping out of Mica's arms and rushing over to meet the totodile.

"Is that so?" said Elm, who still looked distracted by the totodile that was chewing on his equipment. He only properly responded once Horatio had distracted Totodile enough to allow the aide to pull the metal out of its mouth. "You look a little old to be just starting out, and why do you already have a starter if you're new at this?" he questioned, now looking at Mica properly.

_Is she trying to scam me? But start up funds are pretty miniscule; there are better ways to scam people. But you never know._

"Oh, I've been partners with Horatio for a while, but I lived in Almia before this. When I moved away, I decided I wanted to be a trainer," Mica replied, a little insulted at the subtext of the man's questions.

_What, do I look like a thief? Well, I guess I am a random teenager showing up on his doorstep…but that's ageism! As a minor above the age of sixteen I am guaranteed the right to live free from discrimination due to age under most constitutions. Wait…most? _While Mica's father didn't let her attend school, he did make her read books on law, history, sociology and the like (and tested her on content after she read said books). She knew he would hate to have a completely uneducated daughter, and the subjects he taught her were perfect for sounding intelligent without having any practical use.

Mica's face must have reflected her inner indignation, for professor Elm looked slightly abashed and directed her to his sitting room, with Horatio and Totodile following close behind.

"Sorry for the state of the place; we've been keeping Totodile out of his pokeball to do some studying with him, and he's a bit of a handful to handle," he laughed nervously as he looked around his cluttered space. "So if you're new at this, how did you know to come to me?" This time when he questioned her, his voice lacked the suspicion and held only curiosity.

"Oh, well I actually went to Sinnoh first, but I was recommended to come here by a friend I met over there," she remembered what Lucian said about possibly getting a pokedex from the man if she mentioned him. "You might know of him, his name's Lucian, he's part of the Elite Four?" she questioned innocently.

"Oh my! Really, you've met Lucian? That's impressive. Come, come, you're probably anxious to get going, and we just got a package in to give to a trainer with potential," he smiled and winked at Mica, and her hopes rose quickly as she followed the professor to another room. This room seemed to be more of an office, complete with a desk and personal computer, but was still as cluttered as the rest of the lab.

Out of his desk he withdrew a small plastic card that was to serve as Mica's trainer's card, and asked Mica to sign the back of it. It was about the same size as a credit card, though a bit stiffer. Mica was told that it was actually electronic, and would keep track of the amount of money in her trainer's account along with serving as a credit card. Next he pulled out a small package and dropped it into Mica's waiting hands.

She eagerly tore apart the package, fully expecting to see the red gleam of a pokedex. What she saw, however, was not red but cream in colour, and not rectangular like the one Lucian had shown her either. She pulled it out of the box, fully perplexed. It looked like a very clunky, old-fashioned cell phone, not an electric encyclopaedia.

"It's called pokegear! It can act as a cell phone, a radio and, if you can get a hold of a map card, it can display a map of the entire Johto and Kanto regions." He explained delightedly. "They're all the rage right now, and I'm sure you'll find it quite useful. Here, let me give you my number," he said, taking the pokegear and downloading his number to it. "There! Now you can call me anytime if you have questions."

Mica looked at the clunky thing with new respect. A phone, a radio, and a map (potentially), all in one? It was no pokedex, but she had to admit, it was still pretty nifty. She turned to her partner, who was busy playing with the messy totodile, and bent down.

"Look buddy, pokegear! Pretty neat, huh?" Horatio sniffed at the thing in her hand and, since it did not yield an interesting smell, turned back to play with his new friend. Totodile, however, seemed quite interested in the pokegear; he leapt over to Mica and attempted to bite it out of her hand. Mica was mindful enough to pull her hand out of the line of fire in time, luckily.

"Ah, sorry about him. Totodile likes to bite things if he doesn't know what they are, in the same way a baby will put a foreign object in its mouth to check out what it is," Elm explained apologetically. "I actually would have given you a pokedex, but Totodile was curious about those too, so they've all been destroyed." Mica felt a bit of resentment towards the mini crocodile for this, but Elm's next phrase quickly distracted her. "Well, you're probably eager to get going. Cherrygrove city would be the next stop for you. Just follow the path west of here; there are no paths branching off of it, so you should have no trouble getting there. Have fun!" The last part of the instructions were said quickly as the professor dashed out of his office, Totodile hot on his heals, apparently eager to get back to work.

Mica was a little thrown by this sudden abruptness. "I guess it's time for us to hit the road." She told Horatio, who also looked a little confused at Totodile's sudden exit.

The two made their own way out of the lab, Mica fiddling with her new pokegear as they went. Horatio began whining at her from the ground as they walked outside and Mica, still distracted with her pokegear, assumed he just wanted on her shoulder and so briefly bent over and scooped him up. This, however, did not help stop Horatio's chattering, and she was about to turn to him and listen to what he was saying when she ran into a solid, warm object and promptly lost her footing and fell over with a slight 'oof'.

"_I tried to warn you…_" muttered Horatio from the ground beside Mica, having fallen off when she toppled over. Mica looked up to take in the person she had just walked into.

He was a boy that looked to be about her own age, and the first word that came to Mica's head to describe him was _sharp_. His eyes, a shade of deep red that matched his shoulder-length hair, were somewhat nasty looking and very, well, sharp. His facial features, from his nose to his chin, were all very angular, and would have been nice-looking had the boy not been wearing a look of clearly defined irritation (which Mica would later come to learn was the most common expression on this face). Even his black jacket had one red line going down the zipper and one wrapping around his stomach, with a jag on each side that again gave him that sharp look.

Laying on the ground, Mica at first intended to apologize and continue on her merry way, but under the fierce and unexpected glare of the boy standing outside Elm's lab she could only manage a small 'hnnn' sound.

"Hmph. Stupid child. Watch where you're going!" he snarled at her as she was getting up from the ground. "Forget what you saw here," he snapped and he grabbed her arm and pushed her towards the path before returning to what he was doing before he was interrupted, which seemed to be gazing through the window into professor Elm's lab.

_Child? But he doesn't look any older than me! And what's with that attitude? I just bumped into the creeper! _Mica 'harrumphed' as he pushed her and began walking away.

"That's no way to treat a lady," she sniffed, nose in the air. Horatio growled in agreement (or what was the cyndaquil approximation of a growl, which actually sounded more like a squeak) and glared at the red head. The boy paid her no attention. He seemed to be to preoccupied with his thoughts.

"So that's the world famous Elm's lab, huh? How pathetic, it looks more like a child's play pen than a lab," he continued muttering under his breath as Mica gave him one last glare and continued on her way.

"What a rude jerk! He can't just push people around and expect to get away with it. I bet he's gonna get beat real bad some day by someone. And it'll serve him right! Maybe then…" Mica continued to grumble under her breath, more to herself than to Horatio. He decided to take this opportunity to keep an eye out for wild pokemon, since they were in the wilderness on their own for the first time, and Mica seemed too preoccupied to watch out herself. Eventually, as they were walking through a particularly grassy spot, a wild rattata jumped out and lunged for Mica, snapping her away from her thoughts. She was caught completely off guard, but Horatio promptly jumped in front of her and blocked its attack on Mica.

"Waah! Our first real battle! Okay Horatio use, ummm…" in her hesitation the rattata darted towards Horatio before he could think to dodge, smashing into him and knocking him back a few inches. "Ah, no! Tackle, now!" Horatio, seemingly unfazed by the speedy Quick Attack he had just endured rushed forward and rammed his entire body into the mouse pokemon, slamming him back a good few feet. "Yay! Well done Horatio! Do it again," she encouraged, elated at her pokemon's apparent strength advantage. After a couple more tackles the rattata fainted, and Mica glowed with pride at her first victory.

"It wasn't a trainer's battle, but it was still pretty cool," she declared as she scooped up her unfazed partner and congratulated him. They continued on their way to Cherrygrove city at a leisurely pace, their path blocked every now and then by an overly aggressive pokemon. Horatio was able to deal with all of them easily, and Mica was pretty sure he gained a level or two by the time they reached Cherrygrove an hour or so later. Her feet were aching, and Horatio seemed unharmed but a little exhausted. Mica's plan was to hit a pokecentre before checking out what the town had to offer. It was a bit bigger than New Bark town, and right next to the sea, which was nice, but still it wasn't exactly a sprawling metropolis. However, the moment she started to make her way to the pokecentre she was accosted by an overly energetic and elderly man.

"Why hello there young'un! New at the training business I see!" he greeted loudly. "Hand your pokegear on over, I gots me a map card for you to swipe!" he said, snatching Mica's pokegear and swiping a card through the slot in the back.

_Well, now I have a map…wait, how does he know I'm new? Did Elm slap a sign on my back that says 'new trainer'? _Mica wondered, and instantly began feeling her back in search for the sticky note in question, earning a befuddled look from Horatio.

"Let me show ya around! I'll be your very own guide gent! Follow me," he yelled just as loudly, running off to the front of the pokecentre, leaving Mica and Horatio behind.

"Hey, slow down!" Mica pleaded, pelting off after the strange man, leaving the short-legged Horatio tottering behind, unable to keep up with these rash humans.

"This is a pokecentre." The guide gent declared proudly, gesturing to the red-roofed building behind him as Mica caught up. "You can visit here to heal your pokemon!"

"Yes, I already know-" Mica began.

"This way now, keep up!" interrupted the old man, dashing off in another direction. Mica turned to scoop up her now panting cyndaquil (who had just caught up) and raced after the man, slipping and stumbling in her poor quality shoes. The old man insisted on pointing out to her and explaining all the obvious aspects of the town (such as "This is the sea! You can find water pokemon in there") while ignoring questions that she asked when he actually stumbled upon something that wasn't entirely obvious ("This is route 30, lots of young trainers like you!" he declared "Yes, but where does it go?" Mica actually wanted to know "On to the pokemart!" and he was off and running again).

The entire ordeal lasted almost half an hour, Mica having obtained multiple scrapes from falling down as she chased after the old man. She considered a few times simply walking away after he dashed off, but she couldn't bring herself to abandon the old man.

"And that's Cherrygrove city!" he concluded proudly to a huffing Mica. "Hey, your shoes are crap," he declared bluntly, after taking in Mica's appearance. "Hold up, let me get you a new pair," and before Mica could protest, he had dashed into a house that Mica assumed-or hoped- was his and reappeared holding shoes that looked to be exactly her size. "There you go! Still warm," he said proudly, dropping the shoes into Mica's hands.

_Wait…still warm?_ Mica considered the meaning of these words for a minute, before she realized what that meant _Ewwwww! Fresh off stinky feet!_ She wordlessly turned to Horatio, who jumped off her shoulder and ignited the flames on his back, realizing his partner's disgust and offering up what the two both considered a perfect solution.

"Whoa! Hold up a minute, that was a joke! Look, the tag is still on them, see?" he said, holding up a tag that declared the shoe's brand (and they were a good brand too, Mica noted with glee). "Consider it a thanks for not sneaking off on me, that seems to be what most people do," he said. Mica thanked him profusely, which he just smiled at; and with a wave and a wink, rushed off into the crowd.

"What a strange man," Mica mused. Horatio nodded in fervent agreement. "Really nice though; these will make travelling way more comfortable," she said, scooping up Horatio and making her way back to the pokecentre.

As the resident Nurse Joy was healing up Horatio, Mica switched her old shoes for the ones the guide gent had given her. They were very comfy, and Mica was pleased that she wouldn't have to worry about sore feet anymore.

Just as she was retrieving Horatio from Nurse Joy again her pokegear started buzzing in her pocket. She flipped it out and looked at the caller ID (though she wasn't quite sure why, she only had one person's number).

"Hey Elm! What's up?" she greeted cheerily, acting like she had known Elm her whole life, rather than simply meeting him a few hours ago.

"Oh, Mica, it's terrible! Just awful! Quick, come back to the lab. It's just…oh God!" he sputtered, to a very alarmed Mica.

"Wait, what happened?" she asked.

"It's…oh Totodile! Help!" he responded, answering virtually nothing before hanging up.

"Wah! Wait, why'd you call _me_?" Mica asked the dead line. She didn't receive an answer (not that she expected one), and so picked Horatio up and hot-footed it out of the pokecentre to backtrack to New Bark.

"_What happened?_" asked a rather alarmed Horatio.

"No idea, but we apparently have to go back to the lab," panted Mica. This time she didn't pause to battle wild pokemon, just dodged around them and kept going. After about ten minutes, when she had reached the halfway point, she skidded to a halt at the sight of another figure rushing in the opposite direction, away from the lab. As he approached, Mica realized it was the same red head that was standing outside the lab. He, too, skidded to a halt at the sight of her.

"Out of my way!" he snarled, after a few seconds of sizing her up. Mica decided that she would intimidate this boy after he was so rude to her before. She narrowed her eyes and slunk her shoulders back in an attempt to look menacing.

_Hn? What is with that bizarre look she's giving me? It looks like she's squinting at the sun. _The boy was a little freaked out by her odd, unwavering stare, but knew better than to let it show. Instead, he conjured up the most condescending sneer he could manage.

"Fine. If you're just going to stand there like an idiot, I'll _make_ you move," he snapped. "Go, Totodile!" he yelled, throwing a pokeball into the air. The small blue crocodile from Elm's lab materialized on the ground, gazing around in mild confusion.

_Wait, is that why professor Elm called? Because a red headed jerk stole his totodile? _Mica wondered, a little taken aback. Horatio, too, seemed momentarily stunned. Out of the two, Mica was the first to recover.

"Passer-by boy would like to battle!" shouted Mica. "Go, Horatio!" Horatio, though still a little surprised, nimbly jumped before the totodile and prepared for battle.

"Horatio, tackle!" Mica yelled confidently, and watched as Horatio obediently charged forward and smashed into Totodile. However, this didn't have the same impact it had on the wild pokemon the two had encountered; Totodile was only knocked back a few inches. Mica then remembered that this was their first trainer's battle, and would be far harder to win.

"Humph. Pathetic. Totodile, use your type advantage. Water Gun." The big jaw pokemon promptly opened its mouth wide and gushed out a torrent of water, blasting Horatio hard in the face and making him squeal in discomfort.

"No! Horatio, quick, counter with Ember!" The flame on Horatio's back had been extinguished with the water gun, but he fired it up again and shot a series of small fireballs at his opposition. Totodile took it without so much as flinching. Passer-by boy ordered another Water Gun.

"Horatio, quick, dodge! We're not losing this!" Mica was suddenly inexplicably angry about the whole ordeal. She glared at the red head across from her, determined to win no matter what. It didn't alarm her when the boy glared back with equal passion.

Horatio managed to dodge this time, and Mica ordered him to perform another Ember. This one hit Totodile square in the face, and he didn't seem as indifferent to the second fire attack. He was far from defeated though, and performed yet another Water Gun at his master's orders. Horatio dodged this, again, and Mica decided she'd had enough of fighting from a distance.

"Horatio, give him a full body Tackle!" Mica yelled, watching as Horatio charged directly at Totodile. Had she noticed the boy's smirk, she may have called off this attack. However, as it was, she was too focused on what Horatio was doing to notice a possible plan forming in her opponent's mind.

"Totodile, let it get in close, then hit it with Water Gun," the boy smirked. Mica watched in horror, too late to call a different strategy, as Horatio was hit hard in the face with the jet of water and went sailing backwards from the force. It looked like a critical hit; he hit the ground hard and didn't get up again.

"Horatio!" Mica ran over to her partner to find him knocked out on the grass. She cradled him in her arms and looked up to see the boy looming over her, a victorious smirk on his face.

"Never forget that feeling, wimp. The feeling of failure. I will be the most powerful trainer in the world, and nobody can stand in my way," the last sentence might have sounded like a threat to Mica's ears, had she not been so concerned for her partner. She did, however, notice a small card fall out of his pocket. It was his trainer's card; the boy had already started walking away, so by the time he realized what he had dropped, she had already flipped the card over and read his name.

"Silver," she muttered under her breath.

* * *

**A/N So what'd ya think? It feels kind of rushed…**

**Oh, and it actually is possible to lose on purpose for your first battle against Silver and the game will still let you keep going.**

**My my, look at all these hits, yet only four reviews. Two of which were from the same person (by the way, thanks to Miss Topaz) Tsk tsk people. Tsk tsk.**


	4. Confidence

**A/N: Well well, that was a very nice increase in reviews. Thanks a bunch people! And, hey hey, looks like I got me my first regular reviewer. Merci, Miss Topaz. And I actually do have something meaningful to say here this time, so good for you for reading it. I know the last chappie was really close to the game (really close) but thanks to Miss Topaz and a desire for outside pokemon, it is time for me to head off the beaten path. Meaning I won't be following the game quite so closely, so now people who have played the game won't be able to guess what's going to happen. And there are non-Johtonian pokemon found. I just couldn't resist crazy old guide gent.**

**Anyhoo, on with the chapter!**

* * *

Silver quickly backtracked before snatching the card out of Mica's hand, giving her one last parting sneer and rushing off. Mica didn't spare time watching him go; Horatio's breathing was faint, and he was shivering all over from being so wet. Mica picked him up again and hurried off to professor Elm's lab, now with even more desperation than before.

Once she got to Elm's lab, she wasn't surprised to see a burly looking police officer standing by Elm and muttering to him in a low voice. Not bothering to consider etiquette, Mica quickly ran up to him and interrupted the two.

"Elm, please! I battled the boy that stole Totodile and now Horatio's really hurt! You have a way of healing him, right?" She pleaded, looking up at Elm with desperate eyes and holding out her partner, who was still unconscious and shivering. Elm looked somewhat surprised, but took Horatio nonetheless and went across the room to place him in a healing chamber, like the ones Mica had seen at the pokecentre. The police officer seemed to take the news in stride (Elm must have told him that she was coming). He turned to her, introduced himself as Constable Miggins, and proceeded to question her on everything she could remember about the boy.

She told him what he looked like (it contradicted slightly with Elm's description, but he didn't see Silver for as long as she had, and memories were faulty anyway). She told him everything she could remember; what he said, what he did, and what his name was. Miggins seemed surprised that she knew this, and Mica got the impression that he had only asked for his name as a matter of routine.

"So his name was Silver?" he asked.

"Yes," replied Mica.

"Did you see a last name?"

"No, the last name is printed in a different spot, and he snatched the card from me before I read it."

"So you don't know the last name?" This seemed a little repetitive to Mica, but she went along with it.

"Nope," she replied. The constable scribbled something down on his notepad, asked if she had anything to add, which she didn't, and lumbered back over to Elm, who was busy monitoring Horatio. Mica resisted the urge to follow after him to see Horatio, recognizing that he probably wanted to question Elm in private. She let out an exhausted sigh, and slumped into the nearest chair.

_I wanted to win so badly. Why couldn't I see that if I made Horatio get in close it would only make it impossible for him to dodge an attack from Totodile? I didn't think before I made Horatio rush head on like that, and Horatio just obeyed without even stopping to think. He's hurt because of me! If I had stuck with Ember, it may have taken longer, but Horatio could have dodged easily. _

Mica looked over to where Elm and Constable Miggins where standing, right by where Horatio was healing. She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them, still wrapped in her thoughts, missing Horatio's weight on her shoulder.

_Trainer's battles are so much more intense than just battling wild pokemon. It was so nerve-wracking… maybe I'm not cut out to be a trainer. Silver seemed to handle his totodile way better than I handled Horatio, even though I've known Horatio for so much longer. He had only stolen Totodile a couple minutes before…_

_Poor Totodile. _

Scenes from her battle with Silver kept flashing into her head; Totodile, materializing from his pokeball, not knowing where he was, Silver's sharp glare as he saw his pokemon's attack had missed, the words he had said to her before he left, and the implicit threat of them, Horatio, soaring through the air, screaming, and not getting up after he fell…

She sat like that while the two men talked and Horatio healed, unable to think of anything but her previous battle and the face of the boy that had defeated her. She was crushed that her first real battle had ended in a loss, and wondered whether she should just try something else before more losses followed the first. She couldn't decide; on one hand, she had really enjoyed travelling to the town with Horatio, and battling the wild pokemon that they met, but on the other, the loss she had just suffered robbed her of the confidence she had managed to build up under Lucian's instruction and while defeating wild pokemon. In the end, she decided to leave it up to Horatio; he was, after all, the one actually doing the battling.

After about fifteen minutes, Miggins left the lab, thanking Elm for his co-operation. About five minutes after that, Elm beckoned Mica over and declared that all Horatio needed was a good night's sleep and to avoid harsh battles and he'd be fine the next morning. Mica thanked him and took Horatio out of the chamber; he stirred briefly in her arms, but quickly went back to sleep. Elm asked her if she was going to head back over to Cherrygrove or not, offering the spare room in his apartment above the lab if she wanted to stay. Mica thanked him for the offer, but told him she would rather get back to Cherrygrove; it was mid afternoon, and Mica said she could make it back before nightfall. She also really wanted some time to talk with Horatio alone, though she didn't say this to Elm. Mica bade him farewell, and then headed out on the path back to Cherrygrove again.

Horatio stayed asleep as they walked, and Mica didn't bother to wake him up for the pokemon that attacked her from the grass. Instead she chose to dodge around them and continue on. She was glad to be holding Horatio again, but hated seeing him so exhausted. The walk was mostly silent, apart from the cries of wild pokemon and the sound of Mica's own footsteps.

The third journey along route 29 seemed to take much longer than the first two, but Mica wasn't sure whether that was simply because she didn't have any battles to distract her or if she was actually walking slower. Either way, it was just beginning to get dark out by the time she reached the city and made her way to the pokecentre. She was granted a single room to stay in for the night, and sat down on the bed after placing Horatio carefully on the pillows. She again became lost in her thoughts, and alternated from looking out the window at the darkening night and carefully watching Horatio as he slept. This, however, eventually lost her interest and she decided to go for a walk, since she didn't feel at all tired despite her long day. She locked the door behind her with the key given to her by Nurse Joy and made her way out of the pokecentre.

It was a very mild night, a little on the warm side but the gentle breeze that was blowing easily evened it out. It was fully dark out by now, and Mica checked her pokegear for the time. 9:34. She began making her way to the seaside, since she didn't get to see it well before. She didn't feel bad about not seeing the beach with Horatio; he wouldn't have enjoyed all the water anyway.

She walked until she hit the shore, the waves slowly reaching up the sand as far as they could before slithering back and trying again. She sat just out of reach of the waves and looked out on to the sea. She tried to fathom how Horatio was feeling, and how he would respond to her question when he woke up. Did he feel betrayed that she had let him down like that? Was he sad that his friend was now partnered with that red head? Had he, too, lost his confidence in battling? She doubted that he was mad; Horatio rarely ever got mad, and somehow this didn't seem like the kind of thing that would upset him.

After her mind decided that, though Horatio probably was feeling less confident about battling, and he probably was sad about Totodile, he most likely would continue to put his trust in her without feeling betrayed. She thought about her day, from start to finish, and came to the conclusion that, though it definitely was not among her best days, she had also had much worse. This thought, coupled with the relaxing effect of the salty breeze, helped calm the buzzing worries that had plagued Mica's head since her battle with Silver. More relaxed now, and ready to go to bed, she got up slowly from the sand and brushed herself off.

She looked along the small shore of the beach to take in the scenery before she left, and happened to notice something slightly submerged in the water that looked like a smooth blue skipping stone, except it was about the size of her head. Curious, she walked over to it and bent down to have a closer look. It looked like a large blue oyster that had gotten washed ashore. Its shell was open a crack, and she couldn't help but peek inside. It was too dark to see anything, but the shell seemed to be a kind of pokemon to Mica, though it looked like it belonged at the bottom of the sea, not on the shore.

"Clampearl?" it asked in a melodic voice, but Mica couldn't understand this pokemon, and didn't quite know how to respond. After waiting a few seconds in silence the pokemon, Mica assumed it was a clampearl, snapped shut and refused to reopen. Mica was a little confused, and was going to push it back into the sea when she realized she didn't know for sure that this wasn't exactly where it belonged. She poked it one last time before getting up and making her way back to the pokecentre.

_A pokedex would have been real nice right there_, she thought with a sigh. _Bloody totodile…_

* * *

Silver watched the girl go back to the pokecentre from behind the rock he had used to hide from view. The rock was taller than him, not to mention wider, so it provided an ideal spot to hide behind. He wondered where the cyndaquil she had from before was.

_Hmph. Maybe she realized how useless she was as a trainer and released it. It wouldn't surprise me, considering how weak she was._

When she had come along he had been training Totodile in the water; his pokemon seemed obedient enough, if a little too prone to biting at things that floated by on the water. She had sat down, looking all pathetic and sad; it made him sick. The way she sat in the sand, with the wind blowing at her hair, Silver almost thought it looked like she was posing.

_How conceited! She's not even that pretty! _Silver fumed, already deciding that the girl was being a narcissist. He observed her, noting with satisfaction all of her imperfections: her hair was bland, and not even that glossy, she was extremely short, and rather scrawny, with bony arms and legs, and the skin on her face was blotched here and there by the odd zit, not at all smooth or perfect. The only thing really remarkable about her appearance was her eyes; he assumed their dual colours would be considered eye catching and unique to most people. Silver just found them creepy.

He decided that his victory over her didn't count as a real win, since she was obviously too weak to handle anything stronger than a wild pokemon.

_Well, that's what happens when you get all lovey over your pokemon. A pokemon shouldn't be coddled, it'll just end up getting as soft as its trainer. Battles are violent, and if you can't think violently, than you'll ultimately end up losing._

He vowed that he would never become an idiotic trainer like her. Pokemon didn't actually respond to being loved, it just made the trainer happy. Just like hugging a teddy bear makes a child happy.

_She even gave the thing a nickname. What was it? Harry…no…Horatio! That was it. Why do people even bother naming the things? All pokemon are the same anyway. The only aspect that varies is strength and breed._

All in all, Silver found this trainer to be rather annoying in her habits; even if they had only met for a total of about fifteen minutes, altogether. But there was something she did before she left that intrigued him. He walked out from behind the rock and made his way over to where the girl seemed to investigate something on the ground. When he got there he found a clampearl with a closed shell, probably asleep.

_That's weird…aren't clampearl supposed to only be found at the bottom of the ocean? Hmmm, maybe this one was abandoned by a trainer._

Silver briefly considered catching it, since it would be rare for him to come upon a clampearl in the future, having no way to go underwater- but he dismissed the thought almost instantly. He already had a water pokemon, and besides, if it really was abandoned by a trainer, than it was abandoned for a reason. It was probably weak.

He began to make his way towards the pokecentre in hopes of getting a room for the night, but stopped after a few paces. Chances were, the police had told Nurse Joy his description and name based off what that girl saw. He wouldn't have been surprised if a cop or two were waiting for him in there, considering how close it was to the lab, and how far away the next town was. Silver sighed in frustration, then turned to route 30.

_Guess I'm camping outside tonight._

He didn't think he'd have to do this in every town; just as long as he remembered to give a fake name at future pokecentres.

* * *

Mica woke up the next morning cuddled up with Horatio and tangled in the blankets. She checked the alarm clock by her bed; it was a little past nine-thirty. She stretched, waking Horatio up in the process. She left him on the bed as she headed towards the bathroom for a shower, giving him a little pat on the head as she did.

When she got back it was to see Horatio attempting to make the bed by pulling on the corners with his teeth. She laughed a little at the sight and picked him up to put him on the nightstand while she made the bed herself. After that she sat on the edge of the bed and pulled Horatio onto her lap.

"Feeling better, buddy?" she asked, looking down onto her partner's head. Horatio looked up at her and nodded, a little unsure about how she felt about losing the battle yesterday.

"I've been thinking, and I know that was a rough battle for you. I at least was really shaken up by it." She sighed, and looked into her partner's concerned eyes. "But I've decided that since you're the one that could get hurt, you can decide if you want to keep battling or not." She finished, waiting patiently as Horatio mulled over her words.

"_It was…a little scary_," he admitted. "_But we've only just started. We can't just give up because of one loss. Didn't Lucian warn us that the first loss hurts the most? But he also said the first win is the most amazing feeling ever. We still have a lot to experience. I think we should keep going." _He finished resolutely. Mica felt better knowing he wasn't too shaken up.

"I guess you're right…" she said, trailing off thoughtfully. "New experiences! We haven't even added a new member to the team yet," she realized, a sudden thought striking her. "C'mon! There's someone I…kind of met last night. Well, more like saw, but still. Let's go!" She said, rapidly regaining her rashness, even though her confidence was still a little shaky.

They quickly made their way to the beach, Mica leading the way along the shoreline. Horatio stubbornly refused to walk close to where the waves might touch him, already cranky at being so close to the water. Mica was delighted to find the clampearl from the night before in the same spot she left it in, its shell closed and the waves gently washing over it.

"Look at this rare find buddy! I saw this little-" Mica realized she had no idea of what the clampearl's gender could be- "thing last night on a walk. We should catch it and make it the first member of the team!" Horatio gave her a grumpy glare. "Like, apart from you. First member from the outside," she explained, realizing the cause for Horatio's resentment, considering he was the true first member of the team.

Horatio huffed slightly, but took a battle stance in front of clampearl and revved up the flames on his back nonetheless. Mica expected an immediate reaction from the clampearl, like for it to open its shell and instantly fire a jet of water at them, or something of the like. Clampearl, however, remained motionless and closed in the sand, either not knowing or not caring about Mica and Horatio's presence. Horatio let the flames on his back die down and turned to Mica for instruction, confused at his opponent's lack of reaction.

Mica was confused as well. Was it asleep? Or was it just ignoring them in hopes that they would go away?

_Immobility…what an odd way to defend yourself_, Mica thought.

"Alright then…Let's wake it up with Ember!" She yelled, and Horatio obediently pummelled the shell with multiple little fireballs. The clampearl seemed to register the attack, at least; a small, irritated voice sound from inside. Since it still didn't seem close to opening, Mica commanded Horatio to tackle it.

The tackle, aimed parallel to the waves so that Clampearl wouldn't be thrown out to sea, had seemingly little impact against Clampearl's shell. It barely budged.

"Huh. Maybe immobility _is_ a good defence. Alright Horatio- gah! Look out!" Clampearl had finally opened up its shell, giving Mica her first look at what was inside. A pale pink, perfectly round head rested upon a bed of soft, light blue tissue. Its eyes, though small, shimmered in the sun and it had two white circles on its cheeks, accenting its face nicely. Mica briefly noted that it was beautiful, but didn't have much time to ponder this, for the next moment the shell had once again closed down, pinching Horatio's head inside and causing him to squeal in pain.

_Wait, Horatio's face is right inside that thing! There's no way the inside is as tough as its outside._

"Horatio, use Ember while you're inside its shell," Mica yelled, praying it would work. Horatio complied, and the ensuing blast sent Clampearl sailing across the beach, and off of Horatio's head. It landed with a dull _thud_, and Mica thought that its shell didn't look as tightly closed, which she assumed meant it was tired.

"Alright then, time to catch it!" she declared, throwing one of the empty pokeballs that Lucian had purchased for her at the exhausted pokemon. The ball beamed Clampearl inside and landed on the sand, shaking with the effort of trying to keep the resisting pokemon inside. Finally it stopped shaking, indicating that Clampearl had given up the fight, and stood still. From inside the darkness of the pokeball, Clampearl had one last thought before giving up.

_I wonder how long she'll keep trying with me_, it wondered vaguely.

Mica rushed over and picked up the ball, congratulating Horatio on his good work.

"We caught our first pokemon buddy, can you believe it? I wonder what I should name this one…" She considered briefly, than cheerily made her way in the direction of route 30. "Ah well, on we go to-" she checked the map on her pokegear- "Violet City!"

Horatio tugged on her pants before she went too far, slightly concerned.

_Wait! Didn't we promise Lucian we'd give him a call? This is our third day here and we still haven't done that yet!_

"Cynda cynda quil," He intoned, looking up at his trainer anxiously. Which was slightly painful, seeing how his neck was still sore from the Clamp attack he received before.

"Oh, calling Lucian!" she slapped her forehead with her hand. "I totally forgot. Alright, we'll swing by the pokecentre and heal up you and newbie, then give Lucian a ring." She decided, heading back towards the pokecentre.

Since neither Horatio nor Clampearl had been knocked out, their healing didn't take too long, and Mica made her way over to one of the public video-phones. She couldn't use her pokegear since she didn't know Lucian's number, but the operator quickly got her in contact with the Sinnoh League, and it was easy to get a hold of Lucian from there.

"Hey there Mica. I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me," he greeted as his face came on screen. He didn't seem irritated, just gently amused, like he was expecting her to forget.

"Er, I kind of did," she said, laughing sheepishly. "But a lot happened since I got here." She said, and promptly began telling Lucian everything that happened since she got to Johto. Lucian listened quietly throughout the story as Mica told him about professor Elm, the guide gent, Silver, her loss, and of catching Clampearl. Lucian paused to collect his thoughts for a moment, and then addressed each one of the topics in turn.

"It's disappointing you didn't get a pokedex, but I hear that pokegear is all the rage right now in Johto, you'll probably end up with many useful numbers. I'll give you my cell number too, so you don't have to wait until you're in a pokecentre whenever you wish to call me. However, since you never went to trainer's school, you're rather uneducated about the different breeds of pokemon. Since I seldom use my pokedex anymore, I'm willing to pass it off to you." He smiled at Mica's wide eyed look of glee, and waved off her stuttered 'th-thank-you' easily. "You should also be thankful to that old man. High quality shoes are very useful on a journey." He paused thoughtfully, and Mica waited for him to address what she considered to be the most stressful event since she arrived in Johto.

"Now, this Silver, it seems to me like he was desperate for a pokemon if he would actually go to such lengths as to steal one. He must have something on his record that makes him ineligible to obtain a pokemon legally. The dream to be the most powerful trainer in the world…that's fairly common, he'll most likely calm down about it eventually." Mica remembered the fierce way Silver had glared at her as he said it, and she somehow doubted that he would just calm down. She kept her doubt to herself though, and Lucian continued. "The fact that you lost your first trainer's battle must be very depressing, but I'm sure you'll regain your confidence; just remember how much you learned from that battle.

"In addition to that," he said, "I believe you may have actually found your first rival in him." Mica looked surprised at this, and Lucian continued. "Often, the first person you battle with leaves quite the impression on you. Silver has obviously made an impression on you, and since you gave his information to the police he is unlikely to forget you. It seems to me that you both made an impression on each other, and you'll both want to battle again next time you see each other. Which shouldn't be too long from now, I've looked up a map of Johto, and like most regions the path between gyms provides few chances for deviation in the order you challenge the gyms. Since you both started your journey at the same time, I imagine you'll see him fairly regularly." He smiled at the look of concern on her face as he said this. "Don't worry, you'll be much stronger and more experienced by the next time you see him, I'm sure you'll handle the battle well.

"On a different note, congratulations on your first catch. Though a clampearl is rare to find lying on the beach; I can't help but wonder if it was abandoned. Regardless, the first catch is a special thing, and I'm very happy for you." Mica smiled happily at this and fiddled Clampearl's pokeball, excited to battle with it. The two continued to talk for a little while about trivial things, exchanged phone numbers and Lucian sent his pokedex over to Cherrygrove via the teleportation box usually reserved for transferring pokemon. Afterwards, Mica bade Lucian farewell and gathered her things together to leave.

Mica made her way out of the pokecentre and quickly dashed off to route 30 after checking the pokedex's information on Clampearl. It told her Clampearl's move set and that she was a female. The first thing she did when she reached route 30 was dash into the long grass to look for a wild pokemon, eager to use Clampearl in battle

After about a minute of searching, a wild weedle jumped out from near Mica's foot. Mica happily backed up and released Clampearl onto the ground; she materialized and cracked open her shell slightly to gaze at the weedle. The small bug pokemon promptly fired a Poison Sting at her, and she closed up to deflect it, causing the sting to bounce harmlessly against her shell.

"Awesome Clampearl! Now, take that weedle down with Water Gun," she yelled, enthusiastic about battling with a water pokemon. Clampearl opened her shell enough to shoot out the jet of water and instantly knocked out her opponent. "Yeah! Way to go, Clampearl," she praised, pleased with her pokemon's strength. Clampearl didn't respond, she just closed her shell again until Mica recalled her into her pokeball, a little put out at her lack of response.

_Guess it will take a while for her to get used to me_, Mica thought as she continued down the path. She reached a point where the path forked into two; one way seemed to have trainers up it, and the other had mostly grass.

_No way am I losing two battles in a row_, she thought, and she and Horatio made their way up the trainer-ridden path. After only a few feet she was challenged by a young boy; he introduced himself, but Mica wasn't listening to him. She was determined to win this battle and not let Horatio down a second time.

The boy sent out a rattata; Mica smiled to herself and sent Horatio into battle, commanding him to take the first attack with Ember. It hit the rattata hard, slamming him back and leaving him burned. The rattata got shakily to its feet, wincing from the burn. Mica continued on relentlessly.

"Horatio, finish it with another Ember," she commanded. Horatio again fired off small fireballs at the rodent pokemon, hitting it square in the face and leaving it unconscious. The boy was baffled at his loss, and Mica was pleased with herself and Horatio, if a little disappointed in how easy the battle was.

_Huh. He wasn't nearly as strong as Silver. Maybe this kid is just weak_, she reasoned. She continued down the path, again stopped by yet another young boy and challenged to a battle.

This time she sent out Clampearl, pitting her against the boy's pidgey. Clampearl again whipped out her opponent in one hit, and when the boy sent out a second pokemon, yet another rattata, she knocked it out with one strike also. Mica was beginning to suspect that Clampearl was stronger than Horatio, though by how much she wasn't sure.

She continued to be accosted by various young trainers, and she used Clampearl for the following few battles, and each time Clampearl wiped out her opponent in one hit. There was no mistake in Mica's mind now; Clampearl was most definitely stronger than Horatio, and by quite a few levels at that. Wishing to have her pokemon on equal level, she sent out Horatio for the last few battles.

She found each trainer to be remarkably easy to deal with; indeed, they seemed to be no stronger than the wild pokemon she had encountered before this. She reached Violet city in the afternoon with her confidence slowly building again.

She wandered around the town for a bit, enjoying its old architecture and quaint feel. She noticed a large and impressive tower at one side of town, and asked Nurse Joy about it when she went in to the pokecentre to heal her pokemon.

"That's Sprout Tower," she explained in that high, girly voice that all the Nurse Joys seemed to have. "The sages in there almost all use bellsprout, and it's a favourite place for trainers to test themselves before heading off to the gym." She finished, handing back Mica's pokemon. Mica thanked her and headed off to Sprout Tower.

_A tower full of grass-types…what a perfect chance to trainer Horatio!_ She eagerly made her way across town, excited to battle her way to the top of the tower and gain Horatio some experience.

"C'mon Horatio! We'll burn those weed pokemon to the ground if we have to, but we're defeating every trainer in there!" She declared, rushing into the building, Horatio on her heels.

_Where did this sudden ruthlessness come from?_ Horatio wondered, peering nervously at his reckless trainer. _She was like this with the trainers on the path here too. She pushed me just a little too hard, and she was too violent against the other trainer's pokemon. I guess that first loss effected her more than I thought, though she's not like this with wild pokemon. _

They had entered the tower, and Mica had spotted the first sage. He sent out a bellsprout, as Nurse Joy had said, and Horatio prepared to battle. His Ember took out the bellsprout in one hit, and Mica congratulated him and began to move forward. The sage, however, appeared to have something to say.

"I am glad to see you treat your pokemon with kindness, child. There was a boy who came in before you who treated his Totodile too harshly. You did very well," he said in praise.

_A harsh boy with a totodile? That has to be Silver,_ she glanced down at Horatio, wondering if they were ready to try and take him on again. _Well, we have Clampearl now too. And Horatio has gotten much stronger…_

Mica ignored the man's compliment, and simply huffed passed him without saying a word, determined to find Silver and prove her worth. The sage looked somewhat affronted, but Mica didn't take any notice, just continued to battle the trainers in Sprout Tower; taking out sages and other trainers that were there training their pokemon alike. Each battle she won she became more disdainful of her opponent, growing in arrogance and violence. Horatio was becoming truly worried about her.

_That battle with Silver…affected her more than I thought! She seems so resentful to other trainers now; she must have been more shaken up by that loss than I thought. Now she takes trainer's battles so seriously, it's like she'll do anything to win!_

Finally the two made it to the top of the tower, and Mica saw exactly what she was expecting. At the other end of the room they were in, with his back to them, was a red haired boy in a black jacket battling the elder of the tower. Mica's eyes narrowed and she took a determined step forward.

"Silver."

* * *

**Ok, so not too far off from the game. But there's really not much I can do at this point to shake things up. Review!**


	5. Learn

**A/N I know…compared to how quickly the other chapters have been updated, this was really slow. But I couldn't use the internet at all until today…otherwise my bill would have been about 100 dollars. As a result, I actually have the next chapter ready to go too, but I'll leave this one up for a couple days for reviews. And also… Miss Topaz…your reviews make me so happy :D**

* * *

Having finished his battle with the elder, Silver turned to see the girl from the day before staring him down. He snorted slightly, amused, and allowed a smirk to slink across his face. He recalled his totodile, who had been chewing on the head of the elder's bellsprout contently, and made his way over to her.

"Got something to say…" Silver had meant to spit the girl's name at her at the end of this sentence, and then realized that he had no idea what it was.

"Mica," she supplied for him, correctly guessing the reason he had trailed off at the end of his sentence. "And yeah, I do," she said boldly, stepping towards the boy until she was in his space. He wiped the smirk off his face, displeased with the space invasion and the attitude she was giving him. He was almost a whole head taller than her, and once she was a foot away he crossed his arms and glared down at her as harshly as he could. Which was fairly harsh; glaring was something of a specialty with Silver.

Mica felt her resolve falter as she looked up into his sharp glare, and was drawing a blank as to what she had planned to say. Horatio squeaked nervously, sensing her tension, and her drop in confidence must have shown on her face, because the boy resumed his smirking.

_Humph. Smirky smirk. I'm not backing down yet,_ she thought, irritated that he wasn't taking her seriously, but still nervous nonetheless.

"I-I'm not a failure, and I'm not a wimp," she said, working to cover up the shakiness in her voice and not quite succeeding. "And I don't think you're that strong either," she continued, earning a glare from the red head. "If you didn't have a type advantage, you wouldn't have won. It would have been a hard hit for Horatio, but he would have gotten up again. He only fainted because you had a type advantage." She had managed to shake the nervousness out of her voice by now, though her voice still sounded whiny to her own ears, and Silver was again smirking down at her, apparently amused by her statement.

"Type advantage, huh? You're saying that's the only reason why I won?" He asked, taking a step towards her as he spoke and forcing her to back up. "Don't you think that's a little hypocritical of you? All the sages use bellsprout, so your cyndaquil has an obvious advantage. I could easily say that's how _you_ managed to make your way up here." He continued stepping towards her as he spoke, until Mica felt her back hit the pillar in the middle of the room.

"But that elder back there-" he said, swinging his hand over his shoulder to gesture towards the elder, making Mica flinch from how close his hand came to her face- "he has a hoothoot in addition to those pathetic bellsprout. It's obvious you want a re-match, but I don't feel like bothering with a wimp like you at the moment." _And my totodile is exhausted from that battle,_ he thought. "However, I will watch your battle with him, so you can prove how tough you are." He smirked, entertained by her look of fear, and backed up and gestured to her to go challenge the elder, who had been quietly watching their exchange from the other end of the room.

Mica huffed by him, irritated at how easily she let herself be intimidated. The elder was a wizened old man, dressed in a white robe and sitting cross legged on the ground. Mica stopped when she was an appropriate distance away from the man to allow a battle, and waited for him to get up, not feeling the need to voice her challenge since he had obviously overheard the conversation between her and Silver.

"I accept your challenge," he said simply, and through a pokeball in front of him without bothering to get up from the ground. A bellsprout appeared, to no one's surprise, and Mica sent Horatio into battle. Silver was leaning against the wall off to the side, smirking as he watched the battle before him unfold.

"Horatio, use Ember," Mica commanded, watching as Horatio pelted the little weed pokemon with balls of fire. The force sent the bellsprout sailing across the room and slammed it into the back wall. Bellsprout hit the ground hard, but was still hanging on to consciousness. The elder commanded Bellsprout to use Vine Whip, which Horatio easily dodged.

"Alright, finish it with another Ember." Mica knew that Tackle would have been sufficient to knock the thing out, but Silver's presence and the bitterness she felt at his condescending attitude pushed her to excessive violence. The bellsprout was hit clean in the face with fire, and this time when he fell he did not get up again. Mica didn't miss the glare sent her way from the elder, or the intrigue in Silver's eyes.

_See, I'm not so weak_, she thought, pleased that the arrogance seemed to have faded from his face.

_Huh. I was sure she would use Tackle there. She seemed like one of those trainers that use only just enough force as necessary_, Silver thought, now interested in the girl's actions. _Is she just being violent because I'm watching though?_

The elder sent out his hoothoot, just as Silver had forewarned. Mica briefly considered switching to Clampearl, but decided she wanted Horatio to have the experience more.

"Hoothoot, use Hypnosis!" The elder commanded. Hoothoot promptly began gazing at Horatio with glowing red eyes, and Mica could see him begin to droop in drowsiness.

"Horatio, dodge it, look away!" she tried commanding, but it was too late. Horatio slumped to the floor, completely lost in his slumber. Not wanting Horatio to be attacked while asleep, Mica withdrew him and sent out Clampearl.

"Clampearl-" _still need to think of a nickname for her_, she realized- "use Water Gun." Clampearl calmly opened up her shell and blasted the hoothoot with a jet of water. Hoothoot seemed slightly fazed, but still rushed Clampearl with considerable speed when told to use Peck. Remembering how Clampearl had trapped Horatio inside her shell with Clamp, Mica waited until Hoothoot was about to peck Clampearl before commanding her to Clamp the owl-like pokemon. Hoothoot shrieked as half its face was engulfed by the immobile clam. Clampearl pinched it for another few seconds, and then released it.

Hoothoot flitted up towards the ceiling, and when the elder told it to execute Confusion, she merely flinched and kept her distance. Mica smiled, and told Clampearl to use another Water Gun. This seemed to be more than Hoothoot could take, and it fell limply to the floor, defeated. The old man recalled his fainted bird, huffed angrily, and sent out his final pokemon; another bellsprout.

_Ugh, I'm getting kind of sick of these things. I must have battled at least a dozen on my way up here. Probably more_, Mica thought as she looked at the small plant pokemon. She thought about switching Clampearl out and waiting for Horatio to wake up so she could use his type advantage, but decided against it. She would show Silver she was a good battler despite being at a disadvantage.

Bellsprout began the battle with Vine Whip, which had little effect on Clampearl's closed shell despite it being a super effective move. Mica had Clampearl use Whirlpool, a move that she had not yet seen done. Clampearl opened her shell completely and began shooting water into the air above her, swirling it until there was a huge whirlpool hovering above her. Once fully formed, she hurled it at the small bellsprout, who was immediately caught up in the vortex.

On the elder's command, the little plant managed to shoot a Razor Leaf attack out of the whirlpool towards Clampearl. Mica commanded Clampearl to use Iron Defence, which rendered the Razor Leaf almost completely ineffective as it bounced harmlessly off Clampearl's re-closed shell. After a few more Water Guns, Bellsprout fainted, leaving the elder with no pokemon left to battle.

Mica recalled Clampearl, thanking her, and turned to Silver to judge his reaction. He looked…grumpy. Mica could think of no better word to describe him at that moment; his arms were crossed, his shoulders were slumped inwards, his eyebrows were furrowed, and he wore a very distinct frown. Mica almost giggled at the expression, but held herself back knowing that it would only make him angry and cause him to belittle her more.

_Her clampearl was at a disadvantage like my totodile…but it did way better than him in battle! Could she really have grown that much in just one day? No, I bet she just got lucky and caught that clampearl really strong._ Silver shrugged away from the wall and walked past Mica without a word, giving her a parting sneer and reserving his final judgement until after he saw her gym battle.

_She was probably just being violent because I was watching_, he decided. _Well, she won't know that I'll be watching her gym battle. Then we'll see._

Mica, though a little confused at his abrupt departure, was still pleased that he hadn't mocked her before he left. She recalled her clampearl back to her pokeball and turned to leave, but the elder called her back.

"Child, the way you battled was too harsh," he said sternly, gazing down at her. "Simply because a pokemon isn't yours doesn't make it any less precious. You need to learn to respect pokemon as a whole, not just the ones you happen to have with you," he chastised. Mica mumbled a vague 'sorry' before turning to leave, a sense of guilt churning in her gut. She made her way back down towards the pokecentre, leaving the slumbering Horatio in his pokeball as she went through town.

After having Nurse Joy heal her pokemon back up, she released Horatio onto her lap as she took a seat on the bench along the wall.

"Horatio, is my battling…too rough?" she asked, the words from the elder mingling in her head, clashing against the feeling of pleasure she got when she remembered Silver's grumpy face and lack of taunts at the end of her battle.

"_Well, it's really confusing_," he told her, glad that she had asked, so he could express his worry. "_When we battle wild pokemon, you're not at all violent, but when we battle trainers you go overboard, and the change is confusing_," he said. Mica considered these words for a few moments.

_Well, of course. I was resentful to trainers because of my loss to Silver, so I was trying to compensate and prove myself. But that's not who I really am; it's no wonder Horatio got confused_, she realized.

"Aw, I'm sorry buddy. I promise I'll just be myself from now on. And screw Silver's taunts." She smiled, giving her happy pokemon a hug. She wondered if Clampearl had been confused as well; they didn't know each other as well, but she could probably still see the difference between her battles between trainers and wild pokemon.

"I think it's time we got to know our new team mate," she declared, releasing Clampearl onto the bench beside them. Clampearl opened her shell and vaguely looked about.

"Hey Clampearl! I realize I should have done this earlier but…this is Horatio. He's the only other member of the team so far." Horatio greeted Clampearl cheerily, to which Clampearl responded with a mild '_hey_' in pokespeak. Mica again noticed how pretty her new team mate was.

"So, I think you need a nickname of your own. You know, since Horatio has one too, and because you need a sense of individuality," she said. Clampearl again responded with just a vague '_that's fine_' as she looked up at Mica's face, seemingly bored. Mica was a little put out at her lack of responsiveness, but began thinking of names for her anyway, since she didn't seem to have any preference.

_Let's see…I gave Horatio his name based off the fact that he's my best friend, and Horatio was Hamlet's best buddy…_

"Not that I'm like Hamlet or anything…nutcase…" she mumbled, lost in her thoughts. Clampearl peered at her as she thought.

_No, you're not a nutcase at all. Talking to yourself, and switching your battle style so drastically and randomly…_ she thought to herself, feeling a little uncertain about putting her trust in this seemingly unstable trainer

_Hmmm, well, I don't know much about Clampearl yet, so I can't really give her a name based on her personality,_ Mica continued pondering in her head. _But the pokedex said she was the bivalve pokemon._

_Bivalve pokemon…BI-valve…bi-VALVE…hmmmm, there's a name in there somewhere…_

"Biv!" she declared. "What do you think of Biv? Like, short for bivalve. Well, pronounced differently, but still," Mica asked. Clampearl seemed to mull it over for a minute, and then gave Mica her first opinionated answer.

"_I like it_," she told her, causing Mica to smile proudly at her success.

"Alright then, team. Are we ready to take on our first gym?" She asked. Horatio cheered enthusiastically, and the newly christened Biv vaguely agreed. Mica recalled Biv to her pokeball, scooped Horatio onto her shoulder, and headed out the door and towards the city's gym.

* * *

_So, overly violent obviously doesn't work very well as my battle style_, Mica thought as she walked through the gym doors, trying to figure out her tactic for challenging the leader. _My pokemon just get confused like that. So what else can I do…huh?_

Mica looked across the gym; she couldn't see anything or anyone except for a wooden platform on the floor and two poles beside it.

"Ah! Is it closed?" she asked, to no one in particular. She looked down at Horatio, and noticed that he had his head tilted all the way back and seemed to be looking at the ceiling. Mica looked up too, and saw that among the rafters at the ceiling there seemed to be a kind of jagged path made out of planks of wood. Looking closely, she noticed there were trainers along the path, and at the end stood one man, presumably the gym leader. The poles on the side of the platform lead all the way up, and she noticed gears and pulleys at the top, with wires leading down to the platform.

"So is that some sort of elevator?" she wondered out load, walking over to the platform. Horatio shrugged his little shoulders and walked slightly behind her as she walked on to the platform. He wasn't entirely sure he trusted the platform, and didn't follow her on right away. As such, he was left behind when it _whooshed_ Mica up towards the rafters with alarming speed.

Mica, who was not expecting to be swept away so forcefully, had fallen down onto her stomach with the unexpected force of the makeshift elevator.

"Oh my…we have lift-off! Horatio?" She noticed the little fire pokemon was not anywhere near her, and saw him on the ground thirty feet below when she peeked off the edge.

_Ah, this thing should have safety railings_, she thought, experiencing a faint sense of vertigo at the height. _Guess it's not safe for more than one passenger anyway. _She aimed Horatio's pokeball over the ledge and sucked him back inside before turning towards the rafters to make her way over to the gym leader. Along the wooden path there were two trainers waiting to challenge her, but she noticed a clear path made of thick glass that went around them and straight to the gym leader. She stepped onto the glass path, looked down, and experienced a very brutal wave of vertigo from standing so high in the air without being able to see her support.

_Gah, there isn't even a safety net in case I fall_, she realized, as she stepped back onto the wooden path. _Not that I'm afraid of falling or stepping off the glass by accident or anything. It's just better to warm up my team with those trainers before I challenge the gym leader_, she reasoned with herself.

The first trainer declared that this gym used only flying types before sending out a pidgey to battle.

_Guess that means I can't use any type advantage_, she thought, sending out Horatio. _Ok, time to think of a tactic. These flying types don't seem to know any special moves_, she noted, watching the pidgey go down in flames, literally, from Horatio. The boy sent out a spearow next. _I bet they rely on physical attacks then. So if I use Smokescreen when they try to get in close, they'll be lost in the smoke and we can hit them hard with Ember! Critical hit!_

"Horatio, use Ember again." _I think I'll save that for the gym leader though; he can see my battles now, and I want to have the element of surprise!_ Horatio's final Ember sent Spearow down too, leaving the boy with no other pokemon.

"Way to go buddy, and with so little room to move too!" She congratulated. Horatio turned to her and trilled happily, and then, much to Mica's surprise, began to glow in a blinding white light. _Huh? Wait, is he…_

"Evolving?" She wondered, watching as his body began to lengthen and widen. _Glowing and growing_, she thought, until itstopped and Mica looked down at her now less mousey, more weasel like partner. He looked like he had gained more muscle in the process, and his body flame was no longer just on his back either; it also poofed out from the top of his head. His eyes had become much wider, and he blinked at Mica, looking a little alarmed; apparently, he wasn't expecting to evolve either.

"Cool beans! You evolved into a quilava. Your new hair do looks so cool and hip. Like a mohawk" she said, hugging him after he had extinguished his body flames. He reared up on his hind legs and hugged her back, pleased that his arms were now just long enough to do so. "But you're too big to ride on my shoulder now," she told him. Horatio shrugged a little, seeming not too bothered by this. She recalled him to his pokeball as she made her way over to the next trainer, pleased with her partner's timing in evolution.

The next trainer had only a spearow on his team, which was easily defeated by Biv. Her path now clear of trainers, Mica made her way over to the leader of the gym, slightly nervous. He was a young man with dark blue hair pulled over half of his face, and he looked only a few years older than Mica.

"Hm. I see you've made it here over the rafters. That's unusual; the slim platform provides little room for non-flying types to move around, while the bird pokemon can swoop freely over and under their opponents," he said before Mica could open her mouth.

_Boo. That's not fair_, she thought, narrowing her eyes at the gym leader.

"Yeah, until those bird pokemon get zapped with electricity," she taunted. This, apparently, was the wrong thing to say.

"You think you can clip a flying type's wings with a mere type advantage?" he demanded, seemingly infuriated. "I, Falkner, will not allow such insults to bird pokemon! Go, Pidgey!" Mica was a little alarmed at his sudden rage, but sent out Biv to battle nonetheless. Falkner and Pidgey started the battle with Quick Attack, which Mica took advantage of and had Biv use Clamp.

The battle went on for a few more turns; Pidgey ended up being trapped in Biv's Whirlpool, and subsequently fainted after Biv fired a water gun into the whirlpool as a combination.

"Pidgey, return. You won't be able to handle this, go Pidgeotto!" He sent out a much larger bird pokemon, with beige, yellow and red plumage.

"Whoa, so pretty!" Mica said aloud, taking in the gleaming bird pokemon in front of her. "Time to switch. Biv, return. Go, Horatio!" She said, sending out her freshly evolved partner.

"Pidgeotto, use Wing Attack," demanded Falkner. Both of Pidgeotto's wings began to glow with power as he rushed towards Horatio.

"Time to execute plan two point oh!" She declared. "Use Smokescreen, than dodge!"

_I wonder what plan one point oh was,_ Horatio thought idly, spewing black smoke from his body flames and dodging to the right of Pidgeotto. The large bird pokemon squawked unhappily from the midst of the smoke, not knowing where he or his opponent was.

"Perfect! Now time for a close range Ember," she decided. Horatio hit the bird pokemon hard from the right, sending him sailing across the room and out of the smoke. Pidgeotto fell a few metres towards the ground before catching himself and flying up again. Mica was pleased to see that he looked quite tired.

"Pidgeotto, use Roost!" Falkner commanded. Pidgeotto promptly sat down a good ways away from Horatio and began to heal itself, much to Mica's indignation.

_This is annoying…Might as well attack him while he can't fly away_, Mica thought.

"Horatio, quick use-" Horatio didn't wait for Mica to finish her sentence before he rolled himself in a ball, engulfed himself in flames and spun towards the resting pidgeotto. "Huh. Yeah, Flame Wheel works," Mica said, mildly bemused. Pidgeotto took the hit hard, and Mica guessed that Flame Wheel had redone all the damage that Roost had healed.

"Gah! Pidgeotto, use Roost again!" yelled Falkner. Mica grit her teeth, now thoroughly annoyed by the gym leader's tactics.

_Quit whimpering about damage and attack you so-and-so. Well, two can play the repeat-the-move game!_

"Horatio, keep using Flame Wheel!" commanded Mica. For about five cycles, Pidgeotto would use Roost and Horatio would interrupt with Flame Wheel, until Horatio finally managed to land a critical hit and knock out the bird pokemon, sending it plummeting towards the ground.

"Ah, no! My father's precious bird pokemon," Falkner cried in despair, returning Pidgeotto to his pokeball.

"Wait, you mean they weren't even _your_ pokemon? You were just battling pathetically with strong pokemon that someone else had raised?" Mica snapped, incredulous.

_How does she know he was so pathetic?_ Horatio wondered idly, ambling back over to Mica's side. _She's been a trainer for all of three days._

Falkner looked like he was going to snap something back at Mica, but was interrupted by her yelling "give me my badge, you avian fetished freak!"

_Avian fetish? Wait, is she calling me a pokephile? Or does she just not know what fetish means?_ Falkner wasn't sure whether to be insulted or amused, and so simply gave her the zephyr badge in hopes she would leave, which she did.

Mica made her way back over to the elevator with Horatio tucked inside his ball. She stepped onto the platform more prepared for the speed, so she didn't fall over this time. However, she wasn't prepared to find Silver waiting for her at ground level. He stood on the side farthest from the door with that irritated look he had been wearing when they first met. Mica, understandably, was a little surprised to see him there.

"Humph. You know, when I saw you battle the elder, I thought you might not have been as horribly pathetic of a trainer as you were that first time. Now I see you're even weaker then I first thought. My presence influenced you so much that you actually changed your entire battle style," he began, looking at her with arms crossed.

_And hello to you too. But, yeah, I guess that's how it would look_, she thought, lost for words at his sudden appearance and abrupt speech.

"It's only weak people that allow themselves to be so completely influenced by others. It's how scum like Team Rocket is formed," he continued, apparently hitting his stride. "I hate the weak. Weak people, weak pokemon, it doesn't matter. I hate them all." When he said the word 'weak' he practically spat it in Mica's face. He had walked over to her as he said this, again invading her space and snarling in her face. And, again, stunning her into speechlessness.

_Ah…scary face back up!_ She thought, slightly panicking at the combination of his words and disrespect to her personal bubble. _If I don't stop him fast, he'll work himself into a rage and…do something bad! Ah, but I can't talk. Oh, what a to-do!_ And so, completely out of options, Mica did the first thing that came to mind.

"Tch! You and you weak po-" Silver had completely intended on turning his little hate speech and focusing it on Mica, but was interrupted by as Mica blew a long raspberry in his face. Sticking out her tongue and blowing, she got some satisfaction out of the look of surprise on his face before turning around and running out of the gym without saying a word.

_What…was that her way of spitting in my face?_ Silver lingered at the gym, still surprised at the previous event. _What a disgusting and immature way to solve things! Well, I'll make her pay for that._ He began making his way to the platform, intent on winning his first badge as well.

He snickered slightly as he remember her look of alarm and panic the last two times he had gotten in her face. _I should make a point to bully her every time I see her. To make sure she doesn't forget me. _Thinking about the few choices they had in the order in challenging gyms, he assumed he would see her often. But then he caught sight of the first gym trainer, and all thoughts about the impulsive blond were swiped from his head as he planned his battle.

* * *

Over at the pokecentre, Mica was addressing her freshly healed team.

"Alright guys, thanks to your hard work, we have earned our first badge," she congratulated them, holding the zephyr badge in front of her for them to see. Horatio cheered happily, and Biv simply smiled vaguely, looking at the badge before her. "And to celebrate and thank you, we will be eating out tonight. Huzzah! Come along." She picked up Biv, since she had no way of moving herself, and beckoned to Horatio to follow as they made their way out of the pokecentre.

_Bah, Biv is really heavy_, she thought, shifting Biv's awkward shape around in her arms in hopes of finding a more comfortable grip. It was uncomfortable, but she kept trying, thinking that Biv deserved to be out of her pokeball for a bit considering this night was just for her and Horatio. Mica would have been happier at the win of her first badge, had the battle been a little more engaging. She found Falkner's repeated use of Roost annoying, and hoped that not all gym battles were so irritating and repetitive. But still, Biv and Horatio worked hard, and deserved some way of being thanked. Mica scanned the restaurants along the streets, looking for one that seemed affordable but good.

"Hey, what about this one guys? 'Pokechow, the pokemon-dedicated dining experience.' Sound good?" she asked, reading the name and slogan of the restaurant. Horatio agreed easily, and Biv said nothing (which Mica took to mean she was interested, since she raised no objections). The trio made their way inside, and were seated promptly by the hostess. The place seemed fairly casual, with just a few trainers and their pokemon dotted here and there among the tables. Mica was relieved to see that the trainers were also supplied with food, so she wouldn't have to go hungry for the night.

Since the place wasn't particularly busy they were served fairly quickly by a cheery waitress. They sat there eating, Mica and Horatio talking happily and Biv quietly eating, listening, and generally seeming at ease. Mica occasionally had to tip more of Biv's food into her shell so she could eat it, not having hands to feed herself with.

_This trainer…seems different from the past trainers I've had. She's not as preoccupied with just getting strong quickly. I've never had a trainer that would ever take their pokemon out to celebrate after a win instead of taking the time to train more. I wonder how she'll react when she finds out about my…condition._ Biv paused thoughtfully, observing her trainer through her tiny eyes.

Throughout dinner she toyed in her head with different reactions from Mica when she found out about her condition, not at all sure how she would react. This line of thought occupied her mind throughout dinner, yet for once it didn't stress her out. It was difficult to worry, when Horatio and Mica where acting to happy on either side of her. Mica kept flicking her peas at the quilava whenever he tried to take a bite out of his food, causing Mica to giggle and Horatio to drop his food. Every time the fire pokemon tried to throw something back at his trainer, she would skilfully block it and remind him that she was actually a ninja. Horatio, however, eventually got his own back when Mica was reading the bill; he managed to swipe all the little mints that came with it and lobbed them one after another at her head.

"Horatio! That hurt," she whined, rubbing her head where the candies had hit. Horatio just snickered and blew a long raspberry at her, doing a very good imitation of the one she had assaulted Silver with earlier. Mica merely pouted and went back to paying the bill.

The three made their way back to the pokecentre feeling pleasantly full and at ease with the world. Biv still wasn't talking much, but Mica got the sensation that this was just her way. She looked down at the beautiful giant oyster in her arms and smiled, receiving a laid back smile in return.

After a good rest at the pokecentre, Mica decided that she would train her pokemon for a while in Union Cave. There were a decent number of trainers to battle against, some nice pools for training Biv in the water, rocky terrain to improve Horatio's speed and footing, and a pokecentre not far from the entrance. The only issue was actually making it there; the path was long and filled with trainers, and Mica had to camp outside for the first time in her life when she couldn't make the trip in one day. It wasn't too bad, once she had sprayed bug spray all over herself and cuddled up to Horatio for warmth.

After two days of travel, Mica was incredibly pleased to come upon the entrance to Union Cave. She had talked to Lucian about some possible training tactics, and was excited to try some of them out.

"Come on buddy," she said to Horatio, standing outside the entrance. "Time for some bondy-trainy-funny-learny times to begin!"


	6. Terror

**A/N Scary chapter ahead. Violence and fear, not nearly as fluffy as the past chapters. Um, enjoy though.**

Mica and her team spent almost two weeks in Union Cave, until Horatio's speed and power seemed to double and Biv…well, there didn't seem to be too much of a change in Biv, despite the fact that she was trained just as often as Horatio. Mica wasn't sure whether her own poor training had caused Biv to stagnate, or if she just couldn't tell the difference in strength. She eventually attributed it to her being so well acquainted with Horatio's ways that she was having trouble understanding this newer, more reserved being.

After these two weeks had passed (and after Horatio had complained about the dampness affecting his body flame for the umpteenth time) Mica decided that they were ready to make the last short hike over to Azalea town. When Mica stepped out the other end of the tunnel the sky was blanketed in black, ominous looking clouds, but it wasn't yet raining so Mica kept Horatio out of his pokeball to enjoy the walk with her.

They hit Azalea town a couple hours later, and Mica began wandering around the town to check it out, as was becoming her habit upon arriving in a new place. The place was very quiet, but not in a relaxed, small town way. It was more stressful, and the fact that very few citizens were on the streets only furthered that notion.

_Must be the upcoming storm. I guess people must want to stay inside_, Mica reasoned in her head, not enjoying her walk and the tension the town's attitude was putting on her. _Well, might as well challenge that gym now. Maybe afterwards we can huddle in the pokecentre and watch the storm._

And so Mica entered the gym, thinking about sitting later in the pokecentre, drinking some hot drink and enjoying the loud _CRASH _of the thunder outside. The entire inside of the gym was covered in foliage, and Mica was pleased to find out by from a gym trainer that Bugsy, the leader, used only bug-type pokemon. She and Horatio made their way through the trainers that dotted the maze like puzzle on the path to the gym leader.

"Ah, hello challenger!" greeted a boy with choppy green hair and baggy, green clothes. Mica noticed a bug net sitting not too far away. "I didn't expect to have any trainers in today, with the sky looking so mean out today. There's a direct relation between weather and number of challengers, you know," he told her earnestly, his boyish face glowing happily as he chatted with her, apparently in no hurry to start the battle.

"Really? You'd think it wouldn't matter, since gyms are indoors," she said, smiling at the earnest boy. He didn't look any older than she was.

"I know, that's what I thought too. You know, there are some bugs that only live in rainy places. Bugs can live anywhere, they're so amazing! That's why I devoted myself to raising strong bug types, and showing the world how amazing they really are. Are you ready for a battle…ah, what's your name?" Mica told him her name. "Alright, are you ready then Mica? Let's go!"

Bugsy's first two pokemon where relatively easy to take out, not being able to outlast Horatio's Flame Wheel. Mica was feeling confident in her win until Bugsy, looking undaunted by the loss of his first two bugs, threw out his last pokemon. Before Mica and Horatio stood a bipedal, green bug type that was almost as tall as Mica and had large blades in place of where hand would be on a human; Mica's pokedex informed her it was called a scyther. It glared at Horatio, looking much scarier and tougher than any previous bug types Mica had encountered.

_Yikes, those blades look like they can do some serious damage. Time to switch to someone with a higher defence_, she thought, eying the pokemon.

"Horatio, return. Go, Biv!" She summoned her oversized oyster into battle. Bugsy started off the battle with a speedy slash, causing more damage to Biv than Mica thought it could when her shell was closed. She had Biv counter with her Whirlpool, effectively trapping the giant bug in the vortex and allowing her to hit Scyther with a few Water Guns before he managed to break free. Bugsy again had Scyther rush Biv with another slash, sending her flying towards a slightly concerned Mica; she hadn't had the chance to have Biv use Iron Defence. She was far more concerned, however, when she looked down at Biv to discover that she had been completely knocked out.

_What? She was taken down in two hits? But with our training her defence should have gone way up. I guess we were doing something wrong. _Mica dejectedly recalled Biv to her pokeball, hoping that Horatio would be able to finish Scyther off. Bugsy and Scyther again tried to take the first attack with Slash, but Horatio's speedy Flame Wheel managed to get under the scyther's claws and knock him back, causing a sizable chunk of damage. Scyther's next move, Quick Attack, managed to hit, but didn't cause much damage to Horatio. Mica had him counter with Ember, hitting Scyther directly in the face and causing him to roar in pain. Scyther, still standing but now very exhausted, landed a Slash right into Horatio's midriff, knocking him back a bit but again not causing much damage.

_That's weird. It looks like Horatio took way less damage than Biv did. But her defence should have been so much higher._

"Horatio, finish it off with another Ember!" Horatio again lobbed fireballs at his opponent, hitting Scyther head on and knocking the bug out. Bugsy looked rather put out as he recalled the scyther to his pokeball.

"Oh. It's...that's the second time in a row Scyther and I have lost…I guess we weren't as good as we thought," he said as Mica and Horatio ambled over to him to collect his badge. "Oh, here…your proof of winning." He dropped the badge into Mica's hands. His seemed so sad at his loss, the very greenery around him seemed to wilt along with his disappointment. Mica looked at his sad, pretty-boy face, feeling a little tug of warmth in her heart at his obvious innocence.

"You…you're adorable!" she declared, giving the slightly surprised boy a quick hug. "Don't feel sad, that was a really fun battle! The best gym battle I've ever had," she told him, recognizing that it was also only the second gym battle she had, but wanting to make Bugsy smile again nonetheless. It worked; he gave her a grin and a 'thanks!' before biding her farewell, making Mica feel happy.

_Well, that was way more fun than my first gym battle_, she thought as she and Horatio made their way towards the pokecentre. _I wonder why Biv was knocked out so easily though…_

The black clouds overhead were still roiling about angrily, threatening the town with the storm it held without actually spitting out any rain. It was still early afternoon, and Mica struck up a conversation with a girl at the pokecentre while she waited for her team to be healed. The girl was at the end of the pokecentre farthest from the benches, and Mica had her back turned to them as she chatted, which was unfortunate for her. Had she been facing the benches, she might have noticed the old man sitting and reading a newspaper as he sipped his coffee. And, had she noticed him, she may have noticed the headline of the newspaper that was facing out to the rest of the pokecentre, reading:

_TEAM ROCKET CONFIRMED IN JOHTO_

_Police warn trainers to be extra cautious when traveling alone or at night_

The rest of the article was obscured by the man's hand as he held the newspaper. Mica collected her pokemon and headed out of the pokecentre, waving a cheery good bye to the girl and not once glancing at the old man and his paper.

_Hmm. That girl said that her grandpa thought that the storm won't hit until tonight, and it's still early. We might as well start the journey through Ilex Forest; if we time it right we'll just be getting to the other side of the forest by night, and there'll be that little resting house at the end._

"I think I'll be using Biv for the wild pokemon in here buddy," she said, looking down at her partner as they entered the forest. "Her defence seems to be on the low-down, and we need to get that back up." Horatio nodded in understanding, glancing up at the sky as he did. He wasn't entirely sure he trusted that it would wait until night to start storming; it looked like it was ready to go right now.

The forest was very hushed, like the town they had just left, and curiously empty of pokemon. Mica, again, attributed this to the coming storm, but was still a little tense at the muffled silence of her surroundings. Horatio seemed tense too, arching his back and igniting his body flames at the small sounds of the forest that penetrated the silence and echoed through the air, and ultimately left the forest sounding even more silent than before.

Mica fondled Biv's pokeball at her belt, ready to throw it out in front of her to take down whatever wild pokemon decided to try and attack them. No such pokemon appeared, despite how common she knew wild pokemon were supposed to be in a forest.

* * *

In the midst of the forest, Silver was training the zubat he had acquired in Union Cave along with his recently caught gastly. While Mica had been training in Union Cave, he had gone ahead and challenged the gym in Azalea town, which ultimately left him disgusted with its pathetic gym leader.

He had been training in the forest for the past couple weeks, strengthening up his team to take on the next gym. He had caught the gastly the night before, liking its no nonsense physique; it had everything it needed and nothing more. He assumed that its move set would reflect this as well, and was irritated to learn that the only damage-causing move it knew was Lick. Although, its curse attack might prove useful even if it couldn't battle.

He watched the ball of gas that was his ghost pokemon and the large, meaner looking croconaw that had become of his partner. He was pleased to see that Croconaw's evolution had banished most of the crocodile's cuteness, leaving him bigger and far meaner looking than before. The two were battling in front of him while he snapped criticisms at them, things that he thought would be obvious.

Croconaw watched the condensed ball of poisonous gas hover just out of his reach with focused eyes, a low growl building in his throat as Gastly leered down at him, evidently plotting his next attack.

"For Mew's sake, quit hovering there like a retard and attack, you dipshit," Silver snapped at Gastly, motivating it to swoop down and attempt a Lick attack, only to be bitten viciously by the waiting pokemon below. Silver watched them battle, his thoughts trailing off to Team Rocket once again.

He had overheard a couple trainers talking as they had passed by where he was training the first night he came out here. Apparently one of them had heard that there were rumours that a little boy had seen a man in a black jumpsuit with a large red 'R' on the front, which everyone knew was the Team Rocket uniform. Silver hadn't heard much else apart from that, apart from the two trainers worrying that they would be attacked even though they were travelling in pairs, something Silver didn't care about.

Silver had kept training in the forest for that very reason. He would not believe that Team Rocket could actually manage a comeback until he saw it with his own eyes. He didn't think they would be hard to find; there was no way they would have the courage to try and make a comeback unless they had a shear amount of numbers on their side, which should make them easy to spot.

_Yet I haven't seen anything yet. Hmph. They're so pathetic, I bet they scramble away and hide whenever they hear someone coming, like a bug_, he thought to himself, keeping his eyes on his battling pokemon.

_A bug that needs to be squashed_, he added, for good measure.

* * *

_This is way too freaky. I thought quietness was supposed to be soothing. It'll be nice to get to that rest stop… _She and Horatio didn't talk, the silence intimidating both of them too much to allow for any sort of banter between the friends.

After about fifteen minutes of walking, Mica felt something small and cold tap the top of her head. She ignored it, and continued walking on. A few minutes later she felt the same thing on her shoulder, and a few seconds after that, on her face. She paused for a second and looked up to the sky; they were standing in a clearing, so her view of the dark clouds above them was quite clear. Rain began spitting down on them, slowly at first, but quickly growing in frequency and droplet size, until she and Horatio were standing amidst a complete down pour. Naturally, the two began to run for the shelter of the trees at the other end. Mica looked down at Horatio; he looked positively miserable, with his fur all soaked and shivering in the cold.

"Here buddy, get nice and dry," she said to him, pulling out his pokeball and sucking him inside. Despite the nice break from the silence that the rain provided, she still resented the coldness of it and the fact that it forced her to make the rest of the way alone.

After a couple minutes of walking, she was positive she heard the sound of footsteps over the rain. Spinning about and whipping Horatio's pokeball in front of her, she stared around at the trees that surrounded her, searching for the source of the noise. Not being able to see anything, she tried to convince herself, unsuccessfully, that it was the rain that made the noise. She continued on, feeling jumpy, and flinching at every little sound as she made her way through the forest.

Every time she thought she heard footsteps, she would stop, grab Horatio's pokeball, and look for the source, and each time she would see nothing. But once she started walking again, she would begin hearing it again, and it started to sound like it was getting closer.

_Just your imagination. You've got yourself all worked up._ She thought this to herself over and over, but continued to panic each time she thought she heard the sound.

Finally, after walking for another fifteen minutes, and getting herself quite deep into the forest, she knew for a fact that she heard something hit a large oak to her right, and saw on the ground a small rock, with dirt caked on half of its surface, as if it had been kicked out of the ground by someone who didn't lift their foot high enough.

Mica was shaking now, and not just from the rain that forced its way through the foliage above. The back of her neck tingled as she took an uncertain step towards the tree, Horatio's pokeball gripped tightly in her hand. She was three feet away from it, and unable to peak around the tree. She took a few shaky steps, bringing herself two feet away, and began leaning around to look behind the tree. She still couldn't see anything. She took another step-

She heard a heavy foot fall behind her, followed swiftly by a blunt force against her back. A hand pushed her face up against the tree, the rough bark biting into her cheek and separating a couple layers of skin. Horatio's pokeball had flown out of her hand when she was pushed, and she felt the perpetrator's other hand quickly rip off her belt that held Biv's pokeball and fling it aside. She cursed herself for buying the cheapest one, the one with the pathetically weak buckle. She felt a body, a man's body, push against her from behind, squeezing her tighter against the tree she was pressed against. A small chuckle sounded in her ear.

"What a jumpy little thing you are," the man whispered against her ear, sending his hot, putrid breath against Mica's face. "It's very cute, you know." The man easily restrained Mica's struggles to get free from his grasp, his one hand still gripping the back of Mica's head, pushing her face against the tree while his body leaning against her kept the rest of her in place. His other hand had gone up and covered her mouth, muffling the cries that she tried to make. She noted that the hand was gloved, and the glove was soaked and freezing against her face.

She tried using her free hands to hit the man, but at her poor angle her attempts were so weak that he merely chuckled at her. She tried using her hands to push against the tree, but the man again just laughed and pushed back harder. She tried biting the hand that was over her mouth; this stopped his quiet laughter and made him pull his hand away from her mouth, but also made him pull her head back and smash it painfully against the tree. She was crying hard now, and shuddered again when she heard his voice in her ear, taunting her.

"You may not be the prettiest girl in the world," he hissed at her, making her cry harder and flinch, "but I think I can make pretty good use of you. You know, you're actually lucky it was me that found you, and not one of the grunts. They wouldn't have thought to throw your belt away, and you would have escaped. Well, I guess that makes me the lucky one. Not really you." He moved his hand away from her mouth, tightening his other hand at the back of her head in warning, pulling on her hair and making her whimper. She felt his hand's gentle pressure slide down her back, until it was right above her waist. Here the pressure disappeared, and a few seconds later he held something silver and about three inches long in front of her face, which was pressed sideways against the oak's trunk. She blinked her tears away, and saw it was a knife.

"My name's Proton. I think introductions are important, you see. Now, what's your name?" he asked. She didn't respond. "I said-" the knife flicked out of Mica's vision, and she felt him press the knife's edge against her arm- "what's your name?" he growled at her, pushing the knife harder with every second she didn't answer, deepening the small cut there.

"M-Mica," she gasped, still sobbing.

"That's better," he said, pulling the knife away and again holding it in front of her face, though this time Mica had her eyes squeezed shut. "Now, listen carefully love. If you scream, I _will_ stab you." His hand finally moved from the back of her head to grip her arm. He spun her around, and Mica saw his face.

He had sharp green eyes that were at the moment bright and excited. His face was thin, and his features were small. He had green hair that matched his eyes that poked out from underneath a stylish beret, hair that was wet and a little messy from the forest. He was wearing a Team Rocket uniform, and was smirking slightly as he looked at her eyes.

She couldn't help it. He was much stronger than her. Her arm hurt. Her face hurt. He had a knife, and she had no pokemon. She knew exactly what he was going to do. She was scared.

She screamed.

* * *

A little ways away, Silver recalled his fainted gastly, disgusted by its weak defence. The rain was freezing, and the sky had started rumbling out faint rolls of thunder as a warning to anyone foolish enough to still be outside. He pocketed Gastly's pokeball and went to pull out Croconaw's, eager to get back to the rest house and out of this weather, when he heard someone scream.

He turned his head towards the sound, furrowing his eyebrows together. After a few seconds of consideration, he re-pocketed Croconaw's pokeball and motioned for him to follow as he began running towards the sound, thinking about Team Rocket.

* * *

Mica heard a deep cuss in her ear, but didn't pay particular attention to it. On her right, just below her ribcage, Proton had plunged the knife through her clothes and skin and into her body. Sharp pain, pain like Mica had never known before, stemmed from that spot, and redoubled when Proton roughly pulled the knife out of her again. He was saying something to her, it sounded angry, but Mica wasn't listening. She could only focus on the pain, and the sensation of something warm spreading across her side.

Proton kept talking for anther few seconds, then pulled the knife up again, and Mica understood that he meant to stab her a second time, perhaps this time in her chest. However, at that moment she heard another sound, like someone emerging from the trees. She heard another voice, another man's, and he was louder, like he was yelling. The voice sounded faintly familiar to Mica, though she couldn't quite place it. Suddenly, Proton released his grip on her arm and moved out of her sight. Something blue flashed across her vision, but also quickly moved out of her sight.

She vaguely noticed a red beam of light, but she felt herself begin to lose her balance. She started to fall sideways, but felt someone catch her and lower her slowly to the ground. Mica felt arms wrap around her, and she turned her head to see who they belonged to. She was mildly surprised to see who it was.

"S-Silver?" she asked groggily. She felt dizzy and weak, the pain in her side wouldn't go down, and she clutched at the wound as she felt her face scrunch up in pain. He was saying something, and she tried to focus, but felt herself slipping.

She lost consciousness in his arms.

Silver sat there, dumbfounded and scared shitless with the unconscious girl in his arms. Blood was seeping through her shirt quickly, and had already stained almost her entire side. Proton had stabbed her and was yelling abuse and swearing angrily at her when he arrived. Croconaw had chased Proton away, but he had to recall him when the criminal threw a knife at his pokemon as he was running.

He had been asking her if she had a phone, but she simply lolled her head to one side and passed out. Silver, panicking now, searched her pockets in hopes of finding someway of contacting the emergency services. He was extremely relieved to find pokegear in her pocket, and promptly dialled the number. He spent a frustrating sixty seconds explaining the situation to the annoyingly calm operator, nearly snapping when she began pushing for details on location.

"Where in Ilex forest are you, sir?" she asked.

"On the path, in the damn middle of it," he snarled.

"What are your coordinates?"

"How the hell would I know that? Just get a friggin' ambulance out here!"

"The appropriate emergency services will be there shortly," she told him, hanging up.

Mica's hand had slipped from the wound, and thinking he should do something to stem the blood flow, Silver covered it with his own hand and pressed as hard as he could. She looked extremely pale, and she was bleeding heavily from the wound. He stayed like that, shivering in the heavy rain, for the ten minutes it took for the medical helicopter to locate him and lower the gurney and appropriate number of workers down to them, being unable to land.

While they loaded her on to the gurney, Silver looked around for her belt, knowing Proton probably ripped it off her. He found it not too far away, but with only one pokeball attached to it. The other was a little farther away, lying in the grass by itself. Silver picked it up and reattached it to the belt. He looked over to where Mica was; she seemed to be completely loaded onto the gurney. One of the workers turned to Silver.

"Hey, you going with her, kid?"

"Yes," he responded simply.

"Do you know this girl personally?"

"Yes, I do." He and the medic made their way over to where Mica was. She was raised up on her own at the signal of a medic from the ground, and Silver followed the team of medical workers out of the forest to a waiting van that would take them to the hospital where Mica would be treated at.

**A/N Sorry…scary chapter…had to happen…Part of the plot, you know. Please review, and please don't be scared away D:**


	7. Heal

**Well, this was a difficult chapter for me. I don't know how well it turned out…This whole hospital scene is freakin' me out mannn. But I tried to make it semi-long, since I won't be able to update again for a bit because I'm goin' on vacation! Yayyyy! Anyhoo, thanks to the people who have become regular reviewers for this; you have no idea how happy it makes me.**

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* * *

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The ride to the hospital was long and silent. One of the medics informed Silver that Mica was being taken to the Goldenrod General Hospital. That was about it for what was said during the ride, which was thankfully short.

Silver followed the medical team through the hospital, until they directed him onto a gurney in the ER; apparently, his health had to be checked as well. He sat there as the nurses prodded, poked, and cleaned the blood off his hands, all the while growing slowly more infuriated.

_What an idiotic situation to have landed myself in!_ Silver fumed. _Honestly, who walks around in criminal-infected woods without even a single pokemon out. Now I'm stuck waiting in this stupid hospital to hear about someone who I don't even like!_

After being deemed uninjured, the nurses directed him to a waiting room. Silver, still thoroughly annoyed, asked how long he would have to wait.

"Well, the stab wound will have to be cleaned and dressed. It won't be stitched up, since the fluids need to allowed to drain to prevent infection; however, if it's deep enough, some rubber tubing will be applied to-"

"I didn't ask what they were doing to her, I asked how long!" Silver interrupted.

"Oh. A-around half an hour," she stammered, disconcerted with the intense glare the boy was giving her. She headed off towards the ER again, leaving Silver alone with his thoughts.

Several times throughout the course of that half hour, Silver stood and meant to leave, having no patience for this kind of wait, and telling himself that he didn't really care about what happened to her anyway. However, each time images kept popping into his head; of Mica drooped against the tree, about to be stabbed in the chest by Proton, of her looking vaguely into his eyes, slowly losing consciousness. He would remember the soft and unstoppable push of her blood against his restraining hand as it flowed out of her body. And so, with these thoughts in mind, each time he got up he would quickly end up sitting back down again, huffing angrily. Finally, a different nurse from the previous one came and got him.

"Your friend is still unconscious, but you can come and see her if you like," she told him. Silver didn't quite understand why he was going to see and unconscious girl, but got up and followed the nurse nonetheless.

The room looked like the average hospital room; a window, puke green walls and a small nightstand beside the hospital bed that Mica was sleeping in. Like the nurse had said earlier, there was some rubber tubing protruding from under the blankets that Silver assumed was attached to the wound in her side. He noticed also a cut on her arm that the doctors had put a few stitches in. Silver looked at her face- she was still very pale, which made her seem stressed even in her sleep- and grumpily sat in a chair that was by her bed.

_Why am I here?_ He questioned himself. _What I should be doing is combing the forest to seek out the Team Rocket scum that did this. _He entertained himself for a bit with images of what he would do to Team Rocket (and specifically Proton) if he got his hands on them. However, the nurse interrupted his violent thoughts.

"We were able to find her contact information based on the name on her Trainer's Card. She had a man named Lucian listed as her emergency contact; would that be you?" she asked politely, idling wondering if the Lucian referred to was actually that Elite Four member way over in Sinnoh; she doubted it though.

"No, it's not," he snapped rudely, still in a rather bad mood.

"Oh, well we'll be contacting him shortly than, along with the family she has listed," she responded, not as baffled at his rudeness as the first nurse was. "It also says that she has two pokemon under her name, but we were unable to locate her pokeballs. Do you have any idea where they might be, we need to check them for injuries as well." Silver wordlessly held out Mica's belt, which the nurse took. She thanked him, asked if he needed anything, and then left when he refused.

_So I get to meet her family and whoever this Lucian guy is, huh? Great, I get to watch a sob fest. Just perfect_, he thought to himself bitterly.

After a while, the same nurse that asked about Mica's pokemon came in and told him visiting hours were over. She directed him to a section of the hospital with private rooms (that actually boasted no more than a coach and bathroom) reserved for friends and families of patients to stay overnight. Silver slept, and went back to Mica's room the next morning without breakfast, still unsure of his own motives.

_I just want to make sure she's ok because…if she's not, than Team Rocket wins again. I'm staying to make sure she doesn't let that happen_, he eventually convinced himself, shaking the images of the previous night from his head as he did so. _The last thing I am is concerned for that little wimp._

Silver entered the room to find a man with purple hair and a purple suit sitting in the chair he had occupied the night before.

_Gah! Who is he? And when did he get here?_ He wondered, pausing in the doorway and taking the man in. He rose when he saw Silver and introduced himself.

"Ah, hello there. I'm Lucian, Mica's…mentor, I guess. May I ask who you are?" he said politely, though he looked rather tired and stressed.

"Silver," he said shortly, taking a seat on the opposite end of the bed from Lucian. The man sighed slightly, and sat back down.

"The nurses weren't able to tell me much, may I ask what happened?" Lucian asked Silver, clearly worried. Silver glared at the older man, not in any mood to talk, but told him what he saw in the shortest way he could.

"I was training in the forest, I heard a scream, I followed it and I found _her_," he jerked his chin to where Mica was laying, "about to be stabbed again by Proton," he told him.

"Who's Proton?"

"A Team Rocket executive," he replied, no longer looking at the man, instead choosing to study Mica's slumbering face. Lucian wanted to know how he recognized Proton, but decided against asking. Instead, he just sighed and leaned back in his chair, waiting for the girl to wake up.

_Poor thing. Her journey isn't exactly getting off to the best start, _he thought, saddened and angered by the fact that fate was denying her the easy rode that most trainers got to travel. He and Silver sat in silence, waiting for Mica to wake up.

* * *

Mica woke up about a few hours later, feeling very heavy and weak. She tried to open her eyes, only to be blinded by florescent white light that seemed to be coming from directly above her. She moaned slightly and closed her eyes against the assault. She heard a voice, though she couldn't make out the words at first. After a few seconds, her ears seemed to tune in, and she recognized Lucian's voice.

"…positive I just heard her moan. Mica? Can you here me?" Mica wanted to respond, but she still felt groggy from being asleep. She assumed he'd make do with another moan.

"Hmph. About time," another, more impatient voice chimed in. Was it…Silver's? "The nurse said she should have woken up at least two hours ago. Just like you to sleep in." The last bit was said in a louder voice, and Mica assumed he was talking to her. She again tried opening her eyes against the light, this time keeping them squinted until they adjusted to the harsh lighting. She tilted her head slightly to the left, and saw her red headed rival glaring down at her with his arms crossed in front of his chest. There seemed to be something else in his glare than the usual irritation, though she couldn't quite place it.

"Mica, how are you feeling? The nurse said the anaesthesia they gave you would make you feel groggy when you woke up." She felt a hand on her shoulder, and by moving her head to the right she could see Lucian's concerned face hovering slightly closer to her. Had she been less confused, she would have been more entertained by their vastly different greetings.

"Feel…heavy," she murmured. "Where am I?" she asked, unsure of what circumstances could have possibly brought Silver and Lucian into the same room with her.

"You're in Goldenrod General Hospital. You were stabbed by a man named Proton in Ilex forest. Do you remember?" he answered, leaving his hand on her shoulder.

_Oh…right. That._ Mica let her head fall back against the pillow, the events of the last night she could remember flowing back into her head. _Last thing I remember is…Silver's face. He looked panicked; it was a weird expression on him._

"Yeah, I remember," she answered. She turned back to look at Silver. "You brought me here. Guess that means you saved my life," she said to him, then smiled slightly. "Thanks oodles," she said, getting some satisfaction out of the huff of annoyance from Silver.

_Hmmm, he really did save my life though_, she considered. _Maybe it's wrong of me to goad him._

"Don't make a habit of needing it. I'm not a hero, and I don't make exceptions for wimps like you. I was just trying to defeat Team Rocket, and called the hospital when I noticed you there since it wasn't too much of a nuisance for me," he told her, deliberately leaving out how much of a nuisance it really was to stick around in the hospital.

_Nah, it's not wrong_, Mica realized. _If we really do end up knowing each other for as long as Lucian thinks, something tells me this is just how it's going to be._

"Where are my pokemon?" she asked Lucian, turning away from Silver. "Do they know what happened?"

"They're in the ward of the hospital designated for pokemon. I told them what I knew; they're rather worried," he told her. _Well, Horatio seemed worried_, he thought to himself._ The clampearl just closed her shell. _"Mica, based on what I've read, it's important for you to tell us what happened; you can get your emotions worked out before the police question you."

"I want to have my pokemon with me first," Mica answered. "Can you go get them?"

"They're not allowed in this portion of the hospital," Lucian told her. "But we can get a nurse to load you on a wheelchair and go over there." Mica agreed, and Lucian called a nurse to get the wheelchair. Silver seemed annoyed at being forced to make the trip over to the pokemon ward, but restrained himself to just huffing impatiently and glaring at whoever dared look his way.

The bag that collected the fluids from the stab wound had to be loaded beneath the seat before they could head off, kept thankfully out of sight (Mica was thoroughly disgusted with the contents thereof). They made the trip to the other half of the hospital (Silver commenting on how mediocre a hospital was when it wouldn't even focus on a species) and were directed to a room that was reserved for pokemon that needed minimum care. In it were pokemon that looked relatively healthy, some with very minor injuries, and some with none at all. The worst Mica could see was a charmander that had a nasty looking gash over its left eye, forcing it closed. Though it was beginning to heal up a bit.

Horatio and Biv both spotted Mica as she was wheeled in; Horatio immediately ran over to her and hugged her leg (having the sense not to jump onto her lap and press against her injury) while Biv, having no means of transportation, let out an enthused greeting. Well, enthused by comparison to Biv's usual reserved ways.

Horatio noticed that he had left Biv behind, and promptly ran back over to her side to try and carry her over to their trainer. However, Biv was large than Horatio when he was curled up, and her shell was smooth and hard, so Horatio was having a rather difficult time getting a grip on the oversized oyster. The injured charmander noticed his struggle, and went over to help him lift Biv before Lucian could walk over and do it himself. The two fire types each took a side and carried Biv over to where Mica was sitting in her wheelchair, huffing by the time they got there.

"Hey, thanks little guy," Mica said, bending over as much as her injury would allow to pat the little orange lizard on the head. Mica could feel the skin under her hand twitching, and the charmander seemed hesitant to let her touch him, though he did not pull away. He simply turned his head so he could observe her out of his good eye for a few seconds, nervously flinching back a little so Mica could only touch him very lightly. Horatio also gave him his thanks, and after offering a little 'charrrr' in response, turned and waddled until he was with another group of pokemon about five metres away.

"_Mica…_" Biv was peering up at her with concerned eyes, apparently wondering what had happened. Horatio also looked worried, and she felt Lucian again place his hand on her shoulder. She sighed, gestured for Horatio to sit on her lap, and kept her eyes on him and Biv as Lucian and Silver moved into her line of sight.

She told them what happened, from when she stepped into the forest up to before she passed out, though her memory was blurry after Proton stabbed her. Had she been looking at something other than Biv and Horatio, she would have noticed the various emotions flashing across Lucian's face; fear, concern and anger, all showing at various different times and in various different combinations. She might also have noticed the charmander with the cut across his eye glancing over at her with nervous curiosity. She looked at Silver once, when he interrupted her story at the point where she recalled Horatio into his pokeball.

"You returned him because he was _uncomfortable_?" he asked, wearing a predictably irritated face. "Boo hoo! Did it not occur to you that you were way less likely to be attacked with a pokemon by your side? Are you just retarded?" He sounded very angry, by the end his voice had risen to a yell, earning an uncharacteristic glare from Lucian, several nervous looks from the pokemon, and a sharp look from a nearby nurse.

"I didn't know Team Rocket was in the woods; I wasn't expecting to be attacked," she responded, dropping her gaze back down to Horatio and scratching him behind the ear. Silver gave an irritated huff, but didn't say anything and allowed her to continue her story.

As she was speaking, memories of what had happened kept flashing in her mind; the feeling of being pushed from behind, the knife being held in front of her face, Proton's voice in her ear, and his sharp, excited eyes staring into her own. The latter came up most often. She wasn't entirely sure she wanted Silver to know; wouldn't it be just another avenue for him to belittle her with and refer to when calling her weak? Not to mention, she definitely did not trust the red head. He had far from proved he deserved to be trusted. But, he did save her, and Mica reasoned that since he stayed at the hospital until she woke up he deserved to know what happened.

When she got to the part when Proton pulled the knife out in front of her face, she felt her hands begin to shake and her eyes began to burn with tears.

_Easy girl…Don't cry in front of Silver…You're going to be fine, he didn't even manage to do any lasting damage, remember?_ She paused, taking deep breaths to try and calm herself down. Horatio reached up and nuzzled into her neck, just like he did when he was a cyndaquil, and she felt Lucian's hand rubbing her shoulder- though he didn't say anything. She didn't hear Silver doing anything, which she supposed was a good thing, since he wasn't mocking her.

Since she was trying to calm herself, she didn't notice that the small charmander from before had inched over to her; she felt a small pressure on her leg, and look down to see the charmander's large green eye (the one without the injury) looking up at her. The expression in his eye was so completely gentle and sincere that the simple gesture of him placing his hand on her leg calmed her enough to continue talking.

Throughout the rest of the story she kept her arm drooped down to the charmander's level so she could stroke the top of his head while she talked. No one commented on the charmander's presence, and by the time she had finished talking, she felt significantly calmer. Lucian and Silver, on the other hand, did not.

"Tch. Typical of Team Rocket to attack from behind, armed, against someone with no pokemon out. Only the weak take such a pitiful course of attack."

_There he goes again. Using that 'w' word again_, Mica thought, sighing inwardly as Silver started his rant. She tuned him out for a second and glanced at Lucian. He also seemed angry, though he wasn't as vocal about it as Silver; his hand were clenching and unclenching at his side, and he wasn't looking at anyone. Mica, who didn't like this new behaviour, reached a hand out to him and held one of his clenched fists in hers. Lucian looked down at her, and she smiled up at him. He seemed to relax, and smiled back (albeit a little sadly) and held her hand properly. Satisfied, Mica tuned back in to Silver to hear the tail end of his rant.

"…because a proper fight has to have both sides armed. So even among criminals, Team Rocket is pathetic." Silver finished. Mica felt faintly confused by this, and wondered what he had been saying while she was concentrating on Lucian.

"What? Did you expect him to hand me a knife, turn me around properly and say 'here, fair maiden, we shall duel for your chastity'?" Mica questioned, feeling relieved enough from her talk to be able to joke again.

"You're completely missing the point!" he fumed.

"You make points?"

"Yes, I make points! Because I, unlike you, actually still have my sanity," he snapped loudly, scaring away the little charmander at Mica's leg. Mica watched him go, looking a little disappointed. "And why did you blow a raspberry in my face at Violet city?"

"Hmmm, that was a while ago," she noted vaguely, still looking after the charmander. "To make you stop talking."

"And spitting in my face was the best way you could think of?"

"Yup."

"What the hell! Are you honestly so stupid and immature that when you can't think of actual words you resort to spitting?"

"I prefer the term resourceful." Lucian watched the banter in silence, unsure of how to react. He highly disapproved of how rude Silver was being to Mica- especially as she was recovering from a stab wound and a near rape. At the same time though, the back and forth seemed to have lifted her spirits; Lucian got the impression that she enjoyed infuriating Silver.

_Well, whatever makes her happy, I guess_. The squabbling continued for another few minutes, finally ending with Silver announcing that Mica was a 'pathetically weak retard'. There was a few seconds of silence; no one was particularly sure on where to go from there. Mica resorted to scratching Horatio behind the ears, and Lucian bent down to try and communicate with Biv. When she saw him bend down to get to her level, however, she simply snapped her shell shut without a word.

"Ah, c'mon Biv. Be sociable; you have to learn how to make friends." Mica tried to persuade her, but Biv remained stubbornly shut. Mica began to bend over to try and touch her shell, but was stopped when the motion tugged on her injury, causing her to sit up with a little gasp of pain. Lucian was about to ask what he could do when his phone began to vibrate. He stood up and checked it, finding a text from Flint that read:

_Lucas got lucky. You have to get over here to send him home._

Lucian sighed, annoyed with both the boy's timing and with his coworkers' failure to keep the mediocre trainer out of the league. He did, however, appreciated Flint's choice of words; luck was the only way Lucas could have managed to make it all the way to Lucian. But that luck was about to run out.

"Mica, I'm really sorry, I have to go. There's a challenger at the league that I have to take care of," he told her.

"Don't worry about it, I'm really grateful you came," she told him. Lucian gave her a swift hug, which surprised Mica slightly, but pleased her nonetheless. He said goodbye to her, told Silver it was a pleasure meeting him (Mica assumed he was lying) and left.

Silver looked a little uncomfortable at being alone with Mica, and for some reason the situation struck her as awkward too. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, he announced that he was going to go challenge the Goldenrod gym.

"I don't want to be here to watch you get all goozily over your pokemon anyway," he snapped at her, and began to leave. Mica reached out and caught his sleeve as he was walking by, making him stop.

"Silver…um, thanks. You know, for saving me and all that," she said, a little unsure of what the proper wording was in that kind of situation. She didn't think Silver would know what it was either, though, so she wasn't overly worried.

"Hmph. Like I said; don't make a habit of needing it." He pulled his sleeve out of her grasp and left as well. Mica spent the next few hours chatting with Horatio and Biv (the few times that she deigned to talk, anyway). The little charmander seemed to gain the courage to come over to her again, now that the loud red head was gone, and Mica was happy to include him in on the conversation- even if she didn't know what he was saying. After a while a nurse told her she had to be taken back to her room so the doctors could check her injury. As the nurse was wheeling her back to her room, Mica asked her about the charmander with the cut over his eye.

"Oh, that little guy has been here for a while. That was a really deep gash when he first got here, and it took us a while to heal it up. He only moved into the minimum care room recently."

"How'd he get that cut?" Mica asked.

"Oh, well…from what I've heard, he had a trainer before who had some sort of extreme mental disorder that made him violent. The pokemon rescuer that saved him- do you know what a pokemon rescuer is?" she asked; Mica shook her head. "A pokemon rescuer is like a trainer, in that they have their own team that they bond with and make stronger, but they also are always on the lookout for pokemon being abused by their trainers, and have the authority to take them away if they deem it necessary.

Anyway, the rescuer that saved him said that apparently this trainer (who probably shouldn't have been allowed pokemon in the first place) had stopped taking his medication. He became violent, and carried around…oh what was it now? It was something weird…" the nurse stopped for a second, thinking. "A hatchet!" she declared. "Yes that was it."

"He used a hatchet?"

"Yes, apparently Charmander had just lost a battle to the rescuer, so he picked him up and…ah, I guess slashed him across the face. He would have done more, but it happened right in front of the rescuer, so he managed to save the little guy before any more damage could be done. But I'm afraid that he's going to be blind in that eye for the rest of his life. Unless he evolves, which is unlikely."

"Is there something wrong with how he grows to?" Mica asked, a little disgusted with the story.

"Oh no. It's just that he'll have to be adopted, since the hospital can't raise him. And who's going to adopt a half blind pokemon?" It was phrased as a question, but Mica got the feeling the nurse meant it as a rhetorical one.

_Poor little Charmander! He's so sweet too…_

"Anyway, here we are," the nurse announced as they entered Mica's room. The doctors were there waiting for her, and prodded and poked about for a bit, and then left.

The rest of the day was rather uneventful. Supper came after a while, and Mica was able to watch T.V. for a bit. She could tell that her stay in the hospital was going to be a rather boring one. She decided, while eating her supper, that she would adopt Charmander. He seemed to like her, and she knew that she was one of the only few people willing to adopt a half blind pokemon.

She went to bed, and decided she would talk to one of the nurses about it tomorrow.

* * *

She woke up the next morning at around 9:30, according to the clock on the wall. She had breakfast, and talked to a nurse about adopting Charmander. She didn't know the charmander she was talking about (apparently, she didn't go over to the pokemon half of the hospital often) but told Mica that one of the people that worked in that ward could probably help her.

After breakfast she asked to go visit her pokemon again, and was subsequently wheeled down to the other half of the hospital. She beckoned for Charmander to join Mica, Horatio and Biv where they had settled themselves once she was in the room.

"Hey little guy. Wanna join my team?" she asked, rather bluntly. It struck her in that moment that she had not thought the decision through very much, and she had no idea how to raise a half blind, formally abused pokemon. Would he give her troubles because of trauma from his past? She shook the thoughts away; of course he wouldn't, he looked so sweet! And besides, she needed to save him!

Charmander looked a little surprised by the suddenness of this question. He tilted his head to the side, and slowly stretched his face up towards her, stretching his neck up to do so. She reached her hand out and stroked his nose, smiling at him as she did so.

_She seems…a little rash. Does she always make decisions this quickly?_ He wondered, looking up at her. _But I feel…like I can trust her. I don't know why. And she's willing to take me, even though I'm half blind. It's probably the best offer I'll ever get…_

"Charrrr," he said, looking up at her with a small smile. Mica cheered and bent over to give him a hug- a little too quickly. She sat up and grasped at her side, having pulled on the wound there again. After a few seconds she removed her hand from her side and stretched it down to Charmander again, stroking the top of his head. Horatio, who had been at her side the entire time, along with Biv, cheered happily and smiled at Charmander. Biv gave him a vague '_welcome, then_', though she was smiling too.

"_Nurse!_" Mica yelled out for someone so she could start the adoption process. Mica was sure to make her voice sound more demanding than worried, so the nurse only looked slightly annoyed when he came over, not fearing any kind of medical emergency. Mica announced to him that she wanted to adopt Charmander, and he directed her into another room where she was told to fill out various forms to confirm liability, consent, her authenticity as a trainer, her mental health, her criminal record (or lack thereof) and the like.

It was lunch time by the time all the forms had been read and signed (apparently, the age when someone was allowed to adopt a pokemon was sixteen rather than eighteen, which made everything a lot easier), and Mica tried very hard to let the nurse allow her to eat with her pokemon so she could get to know her new team mate. She nagged and nagged, but the nurse seemed immune, much to her dismay. She did, however, succeed in getting him to allow her to carry her pokemon back to her room, under the condition that they stayed in their pokeballs. Mica promised (while hiding crossed fingers behind her back) and wondered why eating with pokemon was such a big deal.

She chattered happily to the nurse as he took her back to her room, and he informed her that she was allowed to visit the courtyard after lunch, which was another place where she could have her pokemon out. This lifted her mood considerably, and she was looking forward to spending time with her new team mate outside. Her good mood was spoiled, however, when she saw who was waiting for her back at her room.

Oddly enough, she didn't actually see him first; she could smell that familiar sent when she was wheeled into her room. The sent of the high end hairspray that he loved to use to keep his hair just _exactly_ the way he wanted it flooded the small room easily. He turned from the window at the far end of the room when she was wheeled in; his face all strict lines and his clothes just as presses and creaseless as she remembered.

"Mica. The hospital contacted me after you were admitted." Her father said. "How on earth did you manage to scamper all the way over to Johto?" he asked her, every syllable ringing with cool rage.

* * *

**Duh duh duuuhhhhh! Erk, this was a really hard chapter to write. I don't think it's quite up to scratch… I also didn't have time to edit very well T.T**

**Hmmmm, I'm not liking the names of these chappies. Too…ick. Any suggestions?**

**Anyway, when I get back, I hope to see an inbox full of reviews **


	8. Fight

Mica's father stared at her for a few seconds, apparently waiting for an answer. The nurse, sensing tension, hastened to get Mica set up in her bed and left. There was a few more seconds of silence, which was again broken by Mica's father.

"Well?" he asked, growing more impatient for a response with every passing second.

"Well what?" Mica tried to sound snappy and impatient as well, but an amount of shakiness worked its way into her voice.

_Stupid girl…did you expect to never see him again? Did you think that hospitals let parents go unaware when their child is mortally injured? _She scolded herself internally.

"I asked: how did you get to Johto?" he repeated through clenched teeth.

"I jumped on a…" she, again, intended for the sentence to sound angry and aggressive, but her attempt again failed, and she sounded meek by the end of her sentence. "On a garbage barge."

"I checked all ferries, cargo ships, and boats leaving Pueltown the day you left; there were no boats with Johto as their destination." He said swiftly. "Don't insult me with your pathetic lies. _How did you get to Johto_?" Mica looked up at her father, feeling intense pressure to tell him the whole truth; she had learned from experience that he would discover the truth anyway, so lying wasn't really an option. But she didn't want Lucian to get in trouble for helping her run away. She was frustrated, intimidated, and generally unsure of how to handle the situation.

"Why do you care?" she whined. _It always seemed like I was just a burden on you anyway! _"I can handle myself fine on my own anyway!"

"You can handle being on your own? Mica, the day you left you didn't even take any food with you. Do you have any idea what I've been going through while you've been gone? After a month of literally no word from you, I get a call from the hospital in Goldennrod telling me you had been _stabbed_ and that you had to be air lifted to the hospital there. And you forgot to turn the light off in your room before you left! You are utterly irresponsible, and can obviously not handle living on your own," his voice had risen to a yell, and he was wearing an expression that told Mica she was better to back down now, before things got worse.

Mica mumbled something too low for her father to hear, though she seemed to be talking to him.

"What?" he snapped, already irritated at whatever she had to say.

"I just wanted a little freedom," she said meekly.

"You're not mature enough for freedom. Obviously." He gestured to her wounded side. He waited a few seconds to see if she had anything to say to this; when she remained silent, he continued. "You will be coming back to Almia with me, and you're going to leave whatever nonsense you learned here behind."

_Wait…does that include my pokemon?_

"But Dad! I'm a trainer now, I have to take care of my pokemon! They have no one to look after them here, and they would have forgotten how to live in the wild by now." _I don't even now if Horatio and Charmander ever knew how to in the first place; Horatio was pretty useless with tips on travelling, anyway._

"If you think I'm letting you take a bunch of dirty, wild pokemon home with you you're sorely mistaken."

"I'm not going home without them!" she had finally managed to raise her voice up to a defiant yell, much to her pleasure.

"If you think shouting at me will get you anywhere, you're wrong there too."

_Ugh... Father is not one to give up just because I'm yelling. Outright defying him won't work…another thing I know from experience. There has to be some way to convince him…_

"Dad," she said after a few seconds of contemplation. "Aren't you always complaining about how I don't have a job and just loaf around the house like a lazy teenager?" she asked. "Well, if I have pokemon with me, and claim that I am still training, then I'm entitled to a trainer's salary. It's not much, but it's still a little extra." This was the best approach Mica could think of; her father was always complaining about how much she cost to keep, and how she never contributed. He considered for a moment, and seemed about to answer when a nurse came in.

"Ah, I'm sorry to interrupt Mr. um..." She checked a clipboard she was holding. "Charles Kincaid. It's time to check your daughter's drainage," Mica internally recoiled at the word 'drainage,' but kept herself from actually squirming. The nurse set her clipboard down and walked around the bed to the side with the injury, her path blocked by the Mica's father. "Oh, excuse me Charles."

"It's Kincaid," he snapped, moving out of the way. "Mr. Kincaid."

* * *

Silver stood outside the gym doors, preparing himself to go back in for a second time. He remembered his first time going through, the previous day. The gym trainers were ridiculously weak, and the gym leader herself barely any tougher; their battle lasted all of five minutes. And not only did the petite pink haired girl have the audacity to call herself a gym leader, she also burst into tears after she lost! It didn't matter how much Silver yelled at her, she would just cry harder and clutch the badge to her chest, not letting him have it. The words of the nearest gym trainer echoed in his mind.

"Oh don't worry about it…she does this every time. Come back later, ok?" As much as it grated on his nerves to be told to go away without his badge, Silver could not stand the sound of crying, which was getting louder every minute. He made his escape from the bawling gym leader and vowed to come back the next day.

_Honestly, what kind of gym leader bawls like a baby after they lose? That is beyond unprofessional, it's a pathetic display of weakness! And to make the winner wait until she's done having her little pity fest… She is probably the weakest trainer I have ever met! _

Silver walked into the sickeningly pink gym and made his way over to the gym leader, this time unobstructed by trainers. The leader, Whitney, was waiting for him at the end.

"Oh, you're back," she said, acting all chipper, like Silver had not made her cry the day before. "Here's your badge!" She dropped the Plain Badge into Silver's palm. He found her sudden cheeriness almost as annoying as her crying the day before, but didn't particularly feel like speaking. He sent her a cool glare (which, he was pleased to see, wiped the grin off her face) and left without speaking a word.

As he walked down the street he turned back to give the large, clefairy-shaped building a last glare. _Revolting_¸ he thought. _Utterly revolting._

He stopped once he was out of sight of the gym, wondering what to do with himself next. The road to the next city, Ecruteak, was a bit long, and he didn't really feel like leaving the city just yet. He hated nature, and was not eager to leave this sprawling metropolis behind.

_I could…go visit Mica_, he considered, oddly intrigued by the idea. _Not that I care about her! I just want to show her how well I'm doing with my training while she's cooped up in the hospital, thanks to her own stupidity._

Deciding that this would be a good way to extend his visit in the city, Silver began making his way towards the hospital.

* * *

Kincaid was sitting in the chair beside his daughter's bed, staring into space as she slept. To the nurses passing by, he appeared exactly as cool and calm as he wanted; in his head however, he was busy trying to sooth the panic that had raged through him since he received the phone call from the hospital telling him Mica had been stabbed.

_Stupid, stupid girl! Why would you run away, you know nothing about living on your own, or protecting yourself! This is why children should not be allowed pokemon, they think they make them invincible… Though that trainer's salary would be a nice bonus, just for keeping a few vermin inside some little balls…_

_I'm going to have to keep her even closer; now that she's tried to run away once, and since everything with Altru is finally coming together for me_, he considered, thinking about the corrupt (for lack of a better word) 'oil company' he worked for. _Yes…keep her close…because she obviously still needs me to take care of her! She's angry with me, but she'll come to see things my way…eventually. _

He glanced at his daughter, and his eyes were drawn (as they always seemed to be) to the tubing coming out from her side. _Stabbed. Really, Mica, that's a new low for you. So irresponsible; I wonder what she did to allow that to happen to her? Well, she doesn't seem too effected by the experience, anyway. She still has an appetite, she doesn't appear weakened; the only difference I can see in her is that she isn't fidgeting around as much as she usually does. Which, really, is more of a plus. The doctor's say she's healing well…_ he glanced at the monitor at her bedside, checking her vitals. While she had been spending the morning off…Kincaid didn't even know where, he had forced one of the nurses to stay with him and explain what each little symbol and number meant, and what was happening if they went up or down. He had also made her tell him every detail about her injury, along with making someone give him everything that had happened with her since she got in. He needed to know everything.

_They said they could probably take the tubing out tomorrow, thank Arceus. That wound heals from the inside out, so after another few days they should be able to put in stitches as well._ He huffed under his breath, shifted in his chair, and began to make plans in his head as to what kind of hotel he would stay in while he was waiting for her to be released. He certainly wasn't staying in the rooms at the hospital; the beds were awful, and they hurt his back. His job at Altru, coupled with his undercover career as a teacher, gave him a hefty amount of disposable income, and Kincaid was looking forward to treating himself to a nice hotel.

His thoughts were interrupted as a boy walked in with distastefully long hair and an expression that just screamed 'attitude problem'. This boy easily intensified the feelings of hatred Kincaid usually had towards teenagers. Just by looking at him, Kincaid knew the boy embodied everything he hated about kids. Kincaid felt the familiar expression of mixed strictness and irritation settle onto his face.

The boy stopped in the doorway, glancing at the sleeping Mica and then taking in the man already at her bedside and the aura of disapproval that he seemed to be giving off. Silver noted that the man's hair colour matched the lighter coloured blond streaks in the front of Mica's hair; though he doubted even she would lose enough of her remaining sanity to style her hair in a gravity-defying, upwards swirl, like this man had done. The silliness of his hair seemed at odds with the strict expression and age lines on his face.

"And who are _you_?" The boy asked Kincaid, crossing his arms and glaring at the man. Kincaid felt his irritation grow as this insubordinate teen addressed him so rudely.

"I am Mica's father," he told him shortly, not bothering to ask of the identity of the red head before him. It didn't much matter, since he and Mica would be leaving as soon as she was released and they would probably never see the boy again.

"Hmph. I'm Silver," the boy said, despite not being asked of his identity.

_She would have a father who styles his hair in a swirl_, he thought to himself as he took a seat on the opposite side of the bed as Mica's father. He was irritated at Mica's audacity in being asleep when he arrived, and at the simultaneously strict and silly man simply for being there. However, he wasn't about to just turn around and leave simply because this man was there. His pride wouldn't allow it.

Kincaid sniffed as Silver sat down, but didn't say anything. He wondered why such an obviously uncaring boy would even bother to visit Mica in the hospital, and then actually stay when he found out she was asleep. The more he thought about it, the less he could make sense of it. It didn't help, either, that the boy, Silver, was sitting in his chair and just glaring at Mica as she slept. That was actually a bit creepy.

"Exactly in what capacity do you know my daughter?" he asked after a few minutes of frustrated silence. Silver looked at him and smirked.

_What are you smirking at, boy?_ Kincaid fumed inside, not realizing that this was just one of Silver's default facial expressions.

"I'm her…" _Ah, wait. What am I with her? I'm not her friend, I'm not her equal or inferior and I'm not her enemy, apparently._ "Rival." He decided, unable to think of a better way to describe himself. He wasn't particularly happy with 'rival'; that implied that they were equals, and Silver considered himself to be far superior to Mica.

"Well, not for long," Kincaid said curtly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" _Arrogant old man!_

Kincaid studied the boy for a second, apparently deciding whether or not he would even answer. "I mean that once she heals, I'm taking her home. She won't be in Johto for much longer."

"Why the hell would you pay to ship her over to Johto and then just take her back simply because she got hurt?" Silver asked, irrationally angry. He decided to factor out the possibility that her dad might have been afraid for her safety, apparently.

"I didn't _pay_ to send her anywhere," Kincaid snarled. "The idiotic child decided to go off on her own without telling me. She's completely irresponsible, so I'm taking her home to make sure she does something approvable with her life."

_Wait…Mica…ran away? That's not in line with her weirdo behaviour. I thought run-aways were supposed to be dead beats and prostitutes. Though this man…is starting to remind me of my own father!_

"Well, she obviously thinks that what you believe is approvable is a big waste of time if she ran away!" Silver's voice had risen to a yell by this point; thinking about Mica being forced away by this man made him furious, though he would never admit that was the source of his anger. He told himself it was Mica's father's similarities to his own father. "What a bullshit dad you are!"

"What did you just say to me?" Kincaid asked, standing up out of his chair and forgetting about Mica altogether.

"I said you are a _bullshit_ dad! Yeah, Mica's irresponsible, but she's way better off without you!" Silver had also risen out of his chair, yelling at the man that he barely knew. Mica started to stir in her bed, but this went unnoticed by the arguing men.

"You insubordinate little brat! How dare you question me, you know nothing about me!"

"I don't _need_ to know you. It's obvious from the way you talk that you're a pompous, stiff old man! Any child of yours would run away." Mica had awoken by this point, but decided against interrupting the yelling match between the two people in front of her. She knew if the two of them ever met it would end in a yelling match, since her dad hated teens and Silver…seemed to hate everybody. She was actually a little interested in how this fight would turn out; they seemed pretty evenly matched to Mica. Kincaid had mastered the use of sharp words and making his opponents feel inferior, and Silver held nothing back, was very coarse and was probably arrogant enough not to be intimidated.

_Hey, Silver, you came to visit. Aren't you sweet. Watch out for Daddy's Hyper Guilt attack; that move's killer._

"I'd have to disagree, since my son has lived his whole life and gone to college without ever running away," Kincaid said stiffly.

_What? Daddy, you liar. I'm an only child!_

"Well, he is obviously just as pathetic and smarmy as you," Silver said, still yelling. Kincaid didn't respond, since he couldn't think about what else to say about a non existent son. The two glared at each other in silence, until Mica piped up from the bed, startling them both.

"Wow, Silver. You had an entire conversation without using the word 'weak' once; at least not since I woke up. Though 'pathetic' is dangerously similar," she said when she decided that the two were done yelling. She was a bit confused as to who had won though.

"Mica." Silver stepped towards the bed, apparently ignoring Mica's comment. He grabbed her chin and tilted her face up to meet his eyes, once again invading her personal space and putting his right in hers. Kincaid stiffened further from where he was standing.

"Get away from my daughter boy." He warned Silver, not liking how close he was to his daughter's face. Silver ignored him completely.

"Are you actually going to allow this man to drag you away?" he asked her in a low growl, staring into her eyes with an intense expression on his face.

_Wahh, Silver! Why do you insist on being so close to me every time we meet? _

Flustered by his closeness and the suddenness of his question, Mica didn't answer right away. She wasn't quite sure why he was asking her this out of the blue.

_Wait…am I what's going to decide who won the shouting match then? But Silver…what am I going to do to stop him from taking me away?_

"I…don't think I have another choice, do I?" she answered, still flustered. Silver didn't say anything; he just let go of her chin and turned around to leave. Mica understood that her words made him mad at her- genuinely mad, not just the constant irritation that he usually harboured- and, unless she made it back to Johto, he wouldn't come back to see her again.

"Silver, wait." She called out to him just as he reached the door, making him pause in the doorway as he turned slightly to hear what she had to say. "You're going to have a farewell battle with me, right? We've only had the one, and it'll be a way more interesting battle now that we're both stronger."

_Like hell I'm going to have another battle with you! You're weak and pathetic and you don't have any idea how to stand up for yourself. I hate you, you stupid little-_

"Fine," Silver heard himself say. "We'll battle."

* * *

**A/N Back! Did you miss me? (Oh, yes Sweet but Psycho, we missed you ever so much!) Aw, you guys are so sweet. Now, I have a warning. Before, this was the only multi chaptered story I was writing. Actually it was the only story I was writing (and it was such a good story, too!) oh, you guys really make me happy. But, as anyone who was creeping my profile would know- you know who you are- I have two, maybe three other stories on the go along with betaing two, maybe three, MAYBE four other stories. So updates won't be nearly as frequent as they were before (but you'll keep writing, right SbP?) Of course! Mica is my baby! (Thank goodness! We will all be sure to check out your new stories too!) Beautiful! I can't wait to hear the reviews I get from all of my intelligent readers ****(We are ever so excited to read your newest works!) I love you guys! And be sure to vote in my poll for my Go Rock Quads fanfiction, keeping in mind I have never once written my own song.**

**On a different note, I am seriously wanting a beta for this- and future- stories. PM/review if you're interested!**


	9. Leaving

A/N Sweet but Psycho is VERY put out in the sudden drop off in review numbers. Reviews really motivate me to update faster, and really just make me ridiculously happy. Seriously, I review almost every story I read; follow my good example *cries* Also…I'm depressed at the low number of people who have read my Go Rock Quads fanfiction. Last I checked, the total was at seven (unlike this story…1100+ hits…HOLY SHIZZLE!). So, if you like my writing, and you have an idea as to who the Go Rock Quads are, check out 'The Melody of Ambition'.

**Or don't D:**

**Anyhoo…I'm rambling…On wif the chapter (there's SnazzyShipping if you tilt your head and squint real hard).**

It was another two weeks at the hospital before Mica was released. Apart from a visit from Lucian, not much happened. Although Lucian did make things interesting for a few days, the excitement was short lived. When he discovered that Kincaid was planning on taking Mica back to Almia, instead of ineffectively arguing against the man, he went to the nearest law office and ended up jumping through a series of legal hoops in the hope that he could somehow have Mica legally go against her father's wishes and stay in Johto. This infuriated Kincaid to no end, and he decided to confront Lucian about it (though maybe 'confront' is the wrong word; it was more along the lines of 'walk up to the man and start yelling in his face). This did not perturb Lucian in the least, he simply told Kincaid in a soft voice that Mica had a better head on her shoulders than he seemed to think, and to try giving her the benefit of the doubt for once. When Kincaid retaliated by pointing out that Mica had been stabbed in the first month of her departure (a point he kept coming back to) Lucian just gave him a look of mixed exasperation and irritation and walked away.

But, alas, Lucian's legal battle ended in failure; Mica was not yet age of majority, and if it was against her father's wishes for her to be in Johto, then there was nothing he could do. Lucian's last desperate attempt was to try and find Mica's mother, to see if he could use her permission to keep Mica in Johto. That attempt didn't last long; he found out that Mica's mother was in fact deceased; though he didn't find out how. He kept this last bit of information to himself; obviously, Mica had chosen not to tell Lucian about her mother, and he would not force the topic or make her feel guilty for not telling him. And so, it was with a heavy heart that Lucian told Mica that he could not find any legal routes that would keep her in Johto. Kincaid (who was by her bedside at all times- or, for as much time as was humanly possible) wore a victorious smirk as Lucian related the news, and Lucian felt a very ugly emotion indeed rise up in his chest. He was not used to these kinds of feelings- Lucian was the kind of person that was just perpetually calm- and so was a little surprised when he began contemplating ways to punish this man. He very seriously considered siccing Gallade on him, but decided the excess amount of blood that would result might be a bit traumatic to Mica. Plus, the amount of legal paperwork he would have to fill out afterwards would be enormous, and he had seen more than enough legalese to last him a lifetime.

"Well, on the plus side; Mica, when's your birthday?" Lucian asked.

"March 28th" Lucian cursed internally at the date. It was at that time late June, so Mica would have to wait almost an entire year before she turned eighteen. Lucian made a mental note of the date nonetheless; vaguely realizing that she would have turned seventeen not long before they had met.

"Well, once you turn eighteen, you can legally leave and come back to Johto, should you choose to do so," he said. He tried to stay longer to talk with Mica, but simply could not stand Kincaid's constant stream of arrogant remarks. After ten minutes he claimed that he had to get back to the League, giving Mica an apologetic look and an irritated glance to Kincaid, who, much to his indignation, followed him out of the room.

"Ah, Lucian, was it? I want a quick word." Lucian stopped in his tracks, not bothering to turn around to face Kincaid, forcing him to walk around the psychic type master to talk to him face to face. "I don't know why, but you seem to have invested interest in my daughter."

_Oh, I 'seemed to,' have I?_ Lucian thought, already irritated with whatever the man had to say. He simply nodded stiffly in response to the question.

"Well, I suggest that you drop it now. Mica has yet to reach her full maturity, and she'll simply take any interest you show in her and use it to her advantage." _And I don't like that she has such a high ranking trainer on her side. Or that it is only males that are visiting her._

Lucian's hand twitched towards his belt for a second. They were out of view of Mica by now, and there were only a few nurses roaming this particular hall. It would be rather satisfying to see Gallade tear this man to shreds; it was only the thought of the impending paperwork and bad media attention that the Sinnoh League would get that prevented Lucian from calling Gallade out. But oh, how he wanted to.

"I've spent my life associating with pokemon and pokemon trainers. I think I know potential when I see it," was Lucian's only response before he turned on his heel and walked away.

Once out of the hospital it was a short, but jarring, teleportation back to the League. He walked in and looked around, noting with a fair amount of additional irritation that Lucas was once again milling around, healing his pokemon and simply annoying the League members with his presence. Lucian did not understand how Flint had let himself be defeated last time; the boy had not improved at all, and was easily defeated by Lucian's team. It appeared he only got as far as he had through sheer luck, and yet here he was again, ready to give it yet another go. The boy just did _not_ know when to quit.

He stalked through the halls towards his room, a little unsure about what he was going to do once he got there. Cynthia was just leaving her own room (they were all in the same hall) and noticed that her best Elite Four member seemed to be in a rather foul mood, just judging from his facial expression and hurried pace.

"Lucian. What's the matter? Where have you been?" she questioned him.

"With Mica; she's in the hospital." He paused. "Her dad's there too."

_Mica…_ Cynthia vaguely recalled the blond girl hanging around the League with Lucian and her cyndaquil. She hadn't had much of a chance to talk to the girl, but observed how well she seemed to get along with her pokemon, and knew from Lucian that she was an aspiring trainer. Noticing how Lucian's mouth seemed to tighten as he mentioned her father, she assumed this was the source of his anxiety.

"You don't like him?" she guessed.

"I hate him." Cynthia was stunned; Lucian was simply not the kind of guy that hated anyone. At the very most he held a person in slight disdain (such as Lucas). It was something she particularly admired in him. She didn't quite know how to respond to this, and Lucian walked past her and entered his room. She was somewhat concerned about him, but decided to wait for him to come out to talk with him. She knew he'd tell her what was so wrong with the man, he told her pretty much everything.

* * *

So, apart from that short but interesting four day visit from Lucian, the last two weeks passed by uneventfully. Silver did not come back, and Mica wondered how she was going to get her farewell battle if she didn't know where he was. But he said he would battle her, and she decided to take his word for it, against her better judgement. She took her pokemon and escaped to the courtyard as often as possible, training all three of them and getting to know her new charmander. A nurse explained to Mica how to clean his almost-healed wound, telling her that the cut should begin to close up within a week or two, but he still wouldn't be able to see out of one side.

She was also pleased to learn that, if she managed to battle Charmander enough and evolve him all the way to a charizard, it was likely the tissue over his eye would heal enough to allow him to open his left eye. Though there would always be a scar. The tricky stage would be when he evolved into a charmeleon; the rapid tissue growth and his body's attempt to make him able to open his eye would likely reopen the wound, leaving it exposed to infection. If he evolved, Mica would have to keep a very close eye on his health, and clean the wound thoroughly twice a day. Mica thanked the nurse for her help, wondering if she would even be able to remember all the information about what to do with him when he evolved.

_Probably not…_ she thought to herself. _Oh well. I'm sure a pokecentre will know what to do._ She spent a lot of her time when she wasn't training or battle talking with Charmander on her lap, trying to figure out a nickname for the little fire lizard. She was drawing a blank, so far.

The training went well, and by the time Mica was released from the hospital she felt certain that Charmander and Horatio had gained a few extra levels. She wasn't so sure about Biv though; she had been so much stronger than Horatio when Mica first caught her, but she seemed to have not levelled up much at all since then. Mica was beginning to fret over her competence in training water-type pokemon. Maybe she was more suited to just fire types; both Horatio and Charmander were coming along smoothly, and battled efficiently under her command in the practice battles she held from her wheelchair with other injured trainers (where the nurses couldn't see, of course). But Biv…Biv seemed only able to defeat lower levelled pokemon, and none of them near the level of the opponents that Horatio and Charmander faced.

_Maybe I could become a fire-type trainer, I've already got two fire pokemon, after all. And I could take Biv with me when I'm training to make sure we don't burn a forest down! _But that didn't seem fair to Biv: she deserved to be trained strong too.

Her father never came out with her to watch her train- a fact that made her feel both sad and relieved at the same time. Sad because she felt she was rather good at training and battling, and she thought maybe this would make her father proud. She knew it wouldn't be enough to let her stay in Johto- his mind was set on taking her back to Almia- but it would be enough to just make her happy, make her feel like maybe she wasn't such a failure of a daughter. But relieved at the same time, because he was also a stickler for the rules, and would never allow her to battle the other trainers if it wasn't allowed.

_But wait…is battling even against the rules? No one has actually told me 'don't battle', I just assumed. But it's not really just 'the rules,' is it? 'The rules' is more like…_The Rules_. Like a sacramental writing._

Though even if Mica wasn't entirely sure if it _was_ against _The Rules,_ it would certainly be against her father's rules. But was it actually against hospital policy? No one had informed her one way or the other, she just went with the trend of avoiding the nurses' eyes because that's what the other trainers did.

Despite all the training she got to do, by the time she was released from the hospital she was quite ready to leave it. Not that she was particularly looking forward to Almia- she wasn't at all, in fact- but the hospital was just so _boring_. It was the exact same thing every day.

_Hmmm…maybe life as a trainer has influenced me. I can't stand monotony anymore: I have to keep moving!_

…_not that that I'll be doing much travelling anymore._

"Okay, please sign here…thank you. Have a nice day!" Mica, who had decided to celebrate her departure back to Almia by acting completely gothic and depressed, scowled her very best scowl at the woman from her wheelchair. She wasn't sure how competent she was at scowling (Silver set a pretty high standard) but the woman seemed intimidated nonetheless. It probably had something to do with the centimetre thick black eyeliner that encircled Mica's disturbingly bright eyes. Her nails were painted black, and (since she couldn't find any black lipstick) she had coloured in her lips with black washable Sharpie. She had even adorned herself in black tights and a black coat (okay, the shirt she wore underneath the coat was hot pink and poked out from underneath, and the coat itself had some decorative blue hearts embroidered on it, but Mica was fairly limited in gothic clothes). She was very proud in how all-out she had managed to go with her goth day dress up. Her father hadn't spoken a word to her since he saw her that morning, choosing instead to express his displeasure through glares and a refusal to speak to anyone. Mica, who felt bad for the people that seemed offended by this, ended up blowing her gothic/depressed visage by apologizing to everyone that he offended after he walked away.

_The apologetic goth and her mean and swirly haired father. Heh. They must think we're a pretty messed up family…I guess they'd be right._

After she was wheeled out of the hospital the nurse pushing her helped her out of her wheelchair- her father still refusing to talk to her- and allowed her to stand on her own two legs for the first time in far too long.

"Hwa! Freedom! Long awaited freedom from the cursed wheeled chair!" she shouted to the heavens, once again ruining her gothic effect.

_It's going to be very short lived freedom, but still! It's so nice to stand on my own. I'd like to throw my fist heavenwards, but that'll pull on my stitches. Which would be an owie. _

Her father huffed in annoyance at the outburst- she rarely yelled in his presence. She quickly calmed herself down, afraid of provoking him too much in too short of a time, with her combined gothicness and yelling. She was really quite lucky she hadn't been chastised yet, though it probably had something to do with the fact that they were in public. Mica glanced around, her finger twitching towards Horatio's pokeball, itching to let him out and let him stretch his legs since she knew he didn't like his pokeball. She refrained though; despite the fact her father knew about her pokemon now, she still wanted to keep contact between them as minimal as possible.

She looked around for Silver, not sure how he would know she was being released but feeling hopeful to see him nonetheless. She couldn't spot him, and her father was not going to wait around looking for him. He walked forward without a word, leading her towards a bus stop at the edge of town where they would catch a bus to Olivine City, where they would then catch a ferry back to Pueltown, where they would catch yet another bus to the Ranger Academy, where, her dad informed her, he had picked up a second job, much to her surprise. Mica was not looking forward to that boat ride, it was sure to be depressing and extremely long: Pueltown was much farther from Olivine than Canalave was. All the way to the bus stop Mica scanned the crowds for Silver, not finding him once.

_Well, it's not like you didn't know he wasn't the most trustworthy person. It would suite his personality to be a liar._ She sighed, feeling depressed that she wouldn't even get one last battle before she left Johto and her brief life as a trainer.

They reached the bus stop and waited in silence. Mica entertained herself during the ten minute wait by practicing her scowl on the many people who were passing by or those waiting for the bus with them. Most of them avoided looking at the eccentric, slightly mismatched goth girl, but those who did look promptly looked away and quickened their pace when they caught Mica scowling at them. After the fifth person, who was a big burly man and looked the most frightened of all, Mica could no longer hold in her entertainment and started to giggle under her breath. It was after this that her father first deigned to speak to her.

"I'm glad you find this so funny," he said, his voice flat and his lips curling up into a snarl. "However, you will be changing into normal clothes _before_ we get to the Academy." _You strange, overly dramatic child. Why can't you just _be normal_ for once? It would make both our lives easier._

Mica sighed and pouted a bit, but didn't put up a fight. "Fine." _But this is so much fun…_

The bus rolled up, looking exactly as dreary and generic as all public buses looked. But this didn't fool Mica. She knew it was actually the first mode of transportation to her doom. Though she couldn't see a way to avoid getting on it, and so loaded onto the bus with her other passengers.

The bus ride was shorter than the one to New Bark town, and a lot less exciting. Mica watched a couple of cities drift by her window, wishing she could have had the chance to visit them and missing Horatio's company. She had gotten so used to always having him beside her that it felt wrong to have him cooped up in his pokeball. But there wasn't much she could do about it, so she just leaned her forehead against the window and played with Horatio's pokeball at her waist.

The bus ride sapped the bit of energy Mica had after she was released from the hospital. She walked grumpily behind her father as he led the way through Olivine City towards the ferry. She was, however, treated to one last burst of energy as they got to the port.

"Hey, weakling!" Mica recognized Silver's voice calling from not far off, slightly behind her. She turned to see him striding through the crowd, looking, as usual, slightly annoyed. His annoyance turned to pure shock as he caught sight of Mica though. Mica giggled at the uncharacteristic expression. Silver quickly formed his face into a scowl (putting Mica's to shame) and closed the distance between them.

"What the hell did you do to your _face_?" he asked, motioning to said face, as if it wasn't completely obvious what he was talking about.

_Time to play!_ Mica thought, already ten times happier than she had been all day.

"I decorated it!" she told him happily. Mica's father ignored the two and strode away to talk to someone about when their ferry would be leaving.

"What do you mean you _decorated it_? You look like…like…" he paused for a second, trying to think of an appropriate simile. "Like a honchcrow having a really bad day."

_Silver…that was a terrible comparison!_

"I prefer: like a baby deoxys was try to draw a lucario." _Get it? Because lucario have those mask thingies! Hey, I think I have a knack for similes._ "And besides, it's in honour of the occasion."

"Hmph. Well, in that case…wait, is that black marker on your lips?" he asked, incredulous.

_You're ruining a perfectly good pair of lips! _

"Well, I didn't have any black lipstick. And besides, it's washable."

_Weird girl. Even with all that black make up, you still look all cheerful and happy! But all that eyeliner…really makes her eyes look incredibly bright. It's kind of nice, actually. If excessive. _

"Gah! What? That didn't even make any sense!" This was actually said more in a response to his own thoughts, rather than what Mica had said. Silver was appalled that he had responded to his thoughts out loud, but was thankful that they at least partially fit in with the conversation.

"Huh? Yes, it totally did!" Mica argued, and for a second Silver dimly thought that this conversation could easily be applied to both reality and his own thoughts. "But we're getting off track." She held up a pokeball at face level, silently challenging him. Silver, understanding the challenge, backed up a suitable distance for battle, focusing. Neither of them noticed Mica's father returning and taking a seat on a bench not too far away.

_We're boarding the ferry in fifteen minutes girl. The battle ends by then, no matter what. _

Silver threw his own pokeball down first.

"Gastly! Let's go!"

_Gastly, huh? _Mica observed the little floating ball of ghostly gas. _Doesn't look like its attacks would be too powerful._

"Biv! Come on out!" The oversized oyster materialized on the ground, taking note of where her opponent was before closing up her shell.

"Gastly, use Lick."

"Biv, Iron Defence!" She knew Biv was lower levelled than the rest of her pokemon, and figured that her defence would need the boost. She was surprised to see that, with Iron Defence in play, Gastly's Lick barely did anything. Silver looked rather annoyed at this.

_Huh. I guess Gastly isn't too high levelled either._ Mica thought, feeling hopeful.

"Fine then. Gastly, use Curse." Gastly looked a little put out at this, but summoned a giant pin and stabbed himself with it nonetheless, much to Mica's horror. Biv shuttered on the ground, rattling against the pavement slightly, feeling Gastly's dark intentions work through her body.

"Biv, Whirlpool!" Biv flung her shell all the way open, shooting water into the air and swirling it until there was a whirlpool big enough to trap Gastly. She flung it at her opponent, hitting the exhausted ghost perfectly before promptly snapping her shell shut again.

"Confuse Ray Gastly!"

_Huh. That's a low hit move even when you're not being flung through a whirlpool. You're reaching now, Silver._

The sinister ray of light that shot out from the vortex of water wasn't even close to hitting Biv. Mica had the clampearl fire a water gun at the trapped ghost, effectively knocking him out. Biv, who looked exhausted- Mica assumed it was the effects of Curse wearing on her- cracked her shell to look at her fallen opponent and allowed herself a humble smile.

"Tch. Useless thing," Silver mumbled as he recalled his fallen pokemon. He chucked his second pokeball into the air, summoning a small blue bat. "Zubat, knock out that clampearl with Wing Attack!" And the little bat pokemon, shrieking and powering up its wings, did just that. Even through Iron Defence, it was too much for Biv, and the impact of being smashed by the powered up wings knocked her back a good three feet. She laid there, her upper shell limply resting shut, completely silent and defeated.

"Crap! Biv, I'm sorry. Return." Biv let out a faint "_s'okay_" as she was beamed back into her ball in response to Mica's apology. "Let's test out the new guy then! Charmander, blast that bat!" She chucked Charmander's pokeball right at Zubat, hoping to hit it on the head and cause some damage for Charmander. However, Zubat nimbly dodged out of the way as Charmander materialized on the ground below the bat. With his left eye forced shut, he turned his head to the right to peer up at Zubat through his good eye.

"Zubat, use Wing Attack again." Mica smiled to herself slightly, remembering what Silver had done on their first battle.

"Charmander, wait…Now! Hit it with scratch!" Charmander waited until the bat was directly in front of him before swiping at it with his front claws, landing a critical hit and knocking the bat temporarily to the ground before it managed to flutter up again. Silver, who seemed…less than pleased at Mica's strategy, commanded his zubat to use Supersonic. Charmander easily dodged to the right and fired an Ember at the bat, very nearly knocking it out. Zubat was now fluttering very close to the ground, obviously struggling to keep itself airborne. Mica ordered another Ember.

"Zubat, dodge to your right and hit Charmander on its blind side with Supersonic." Zubat did as he was told; twirling around the little fireballs aimed his way and flying up close to Charmander's left before screeching its Supersonic at it. Charmander held his little hands over his ears and tottered around, obviously confused.

"Ahhh, no! Charmander, it's okay buddy. Listen to me; just turn to your left and use Scratch, that's where Zubat is!" Charmander nearly stumbled in the effort to turn to the left, but managed it nonetheless and scraped the bat across the face with his claws, knocking the bat out. Silver, who didn't seem quite as angry as Mica expected, returned the zubat to his pokeball and called out his final pokemon; Croconaw.

_Yikes, that must be Totodile, but evolved. He looks a lot meaner now. _She first eyed Croconaw's rows of teeth, but was then distracted by his eyes. _Wait…the black around his eyes…we match!_

"Croconaw, Water Gun," Silver commanded, snapping Mica away from her thoughts. The jet of water hit the still confused Charmander, knocking him back and causing a fair amount of damage. Mica wondered whether she should switch him out, but decided against it, figuring that he would snap out of his confusion eventually. And besides, he needed the experience.

"Charmander, just listen to my voice. Use Ember, directly ahead," Mica said, trying to make her voice sound soothing in the hopes it would calm down Charmander, who was now running back and forth on the makeshift battlefield. He stopped running, faced his opponent- igniting a spark of hope in Mica that this attack would land as well- and promptly Embered himself in the foot.

"Aw, no buddy. Not quite right." Charmander seemed not to hear her, and resumed his running back and forth, chanting something under his breath as he went. Mica thought she heard the words 'eevee' and 'pot handle' being thrown around a lot. Croconaw stopped this behaviour with a final Water Gun, knocking the confused Charmander out cold.

"Wah! I guess I should have switched you after all. Oh well, you did great Charmander. Take a rest." She returned Charmander to his pokeball, and held Horatio's at face level, eyeing up Croconaw and Silver.

"Hm hm! And so it comes down to this. The original two partners facing off in a fierce and fiery…battle_._"_ I wanted to use an 'f' word synonym for 'battle' there. I guess I don't have as much of a flair for alliteration._

"What about 'finale'?" someone suggested from the small crowd that had gathered around the battle.

"Yeah! That works. The original two facing off in a fierce and fiery finale! Thank you, random citizen!"

"For Arceus's sake, just summon your damn pokemon already!" Silver shouted from his end, apparently fed up with Mica's showiness. Mica just pouted at him and threw Horatio out to the battlefield. He fired up his body flames impressively and glared at Croconaw.

"Start her up with Flame Wheel, Horatio."

"Crunch it, Croconaw." Horatio's Flame Wheel managed to hit first, making Croconaw wince a bit but not knocking him back much. As soon as the flames left his body Croconaw chomped down on the fire weasel with his impressive jaws.

"Time for a close range Lava Plume," Mica said, calling for their newest move. The flames on Horatio's back started to shoot lava everywhere, flooding the battle field with it and searing the water reptile enough to force it into releasing Horatio from its jaws.

"Croconaw, Water Gun."

"No way! Horatio, combat that with Ember." The two attacks met head on, spewing steam across the battlefield to mix with the small puddles of lava that where dotted here and there. The two attacks cancelled each other out, neither side managing to damage the other. Silver was stunned.

_What? But Croconaw's water should have trumped Horatio's fire, even if they are evenly matched. You're telling me Horatio is actually stronger? But we've gotten three badges while she's been in the hospital! How much training could she have possibly been doing?_

"Use scratch Croconaw!"

_Huh? Silver, you're gonna let me use your own strategy twice in one battle?_ Mica thought as she watched the advancing croconaw.

"Close range Ember, Horatio!" Horatio remembered enough of his last battle with Silver to know that he was to wait until Croconaw was close before striking. The fire pokemon hit the blue reptile directly in the face with his Ember, halting Scratch and, to Mica's delight, leaving a burn behind.

"Water Gun, now!" Mica didn't have time to order a second Ember, and so Horatio got served in the face with the powerful jet of water. Horatio was starting to look very exhausted, but so was Croconaw, Mica noted with relief. Croconaw may have had a type advantage, but he had taken more hits, and was now wincing from the effects of the burn.

"Flame Wheel, Horatio. Go, go, go!" Mica encouraged. Horatio's flames seemed far brighter than before, and Mica's pokemon was roaring in determination.

_Wait, is that…Horatio's special ability? Blaze?_ Mica wondered, watching her powered up pokemon scorch Croconaw, who only barely held on to consciousness. Mica knew he would faint soon from that burn; there was simply no way he could hold on.

"Croconaw, hit it with Water Gun! Get _your_ ability involved. Torrent!" Croconaw shot a doubly powerful Water Gun at Horatio, hitting his mark and knocking out Mica's last pokemon. However, before Horatio had even hit the ground, Croconaw again felt the effects of his burn flare through his body, and passed out at the same time that Horatio did. There was silence for a few seconds, as the two trainers (and the people watching) looked at the defeated pokemon on the ground before them. Mica assumed, since Silver was not smirking at all, that he had no further pokemon.

"A…a tie?" Mica broke the silence. "But that's…that's professional talk for losing!" Horatio gave her a bit of a hurt look from the ground, having regained consciousness, though he was still rather weak.

_Ouch, Mica. That's kind of harsh. I did my best…_

"Huh? Oh! Not your fault, Horatio! You were great! That's the first time I've seen Blaze; it's really cool," she said, sensing she had insulted her partner. Silver just pursed his lips as he returned his reptile to his pokeball.

"Hmph. Weakling. Have fun in _Almia_." He sneered as he turned to walk away, unable to think of anything else to say.

"Aw, you're not going to compliment us on how much we've improved? We really made you work for that…tie," Mica called at his back, returning Horatio to his pokeball. Silver ignored her.

"Come, Mica." She felt a hand land on her shoulder, and recognized her father's voice behind her. "It's time to get on the ferry." Mica doubted that his voice was loud enough to carry to where Silver was, now fifteen feet away, but he seemed to hear anyway. He turned and looked at Mica, hands in his pockets, still not saying anything. Just peering at her through intense red eyes.

_Last chance Mica. Why can't you just leave him behind?_ He tried to convince her with his eyes to stay, but she just gave him a defeated expression and turn to go with her father.

"Yeah, well…bon voyage," Silver yelled, inexplicably angry, and spat in their direction when both Mica and her father turned to look at the shout. Mica seemed hurt, apparently assuming Silver was spitting at her. He didn't bother to inform her it was directed at her father. He turned and walked away as quickly as he could, breaking into a run when he was out of sight.

_This is stupid_, he thought to himself as he tore through Olivine. _I haven't even known her that long. Why…why does this hurt me so much? _He couldn't think of a lie to convince even himself.

* * *

**Review, babeh. Also...Betas? Beta beta?**


	10. Voyage

The boat ride was, as expected, long and excruciatingly boring. Mica changed out of her goth clothes and into her regular ones in the bathroom of the room that she and her father were staying in. She kept the leggings on, adding a plain white skirt overtop of it, and put a light blue T-shirt on instead of the black jacket she had on before. She also did her best to wash off the black make up that was on her face. The eyeliner came off easily with a little warm water and moisturizer, but the washable Sharpie turned out to be not so washable. She scrubbed at it long and hard with a cloth and soap trying to get it completely off, but by the time she gave up her lips still had a faintly black tinge to them. She assumed that would actually come off with an extra ten minutes of scrubbing, but she had already swallowed more then enough soap during the first round, gagging and spitting every time a little bit of the cleansing substance slipped past her tightly shit lips and into her mouth.

She observed her (mostly) naked face in the mirror, trying to figure out how noticeable her slightly black lips would be to a stranger.

_Ugh, they look like there's mould growing on them. Of course people will notice that! Oh well, it will wash off eventually…I hope. _

She spent the next ten minutes, instead, healing her fainted team. She handed out the precious revives and applied potion and bandages as needed. They still looked a little woe-be-gone by the end of her healing (she wasn't the best at it) but she assumed they would have time to heal naturally, since there wouldn't be much battling in her future.

She sighed and returned them to their pokeballs, promising that she'd let them out as much as possible. She replaced the pokeballs in her bag and went out to meet her father.

"Ta-dah," she said mildly, holding her hands slightly away from her body in an exasperated way.

"There's still some black on your lips."

"It wouldn't come off."

"Of course it will come off. Lipstick isn't that durable. Go wash it off."

"No, it _won't come off_. It…it's not lipstick." _Aw crap. I thought he knew. _

"What do you mean it's not lipstick? What is it then?"

"…Sharpie." There was a few seconds of silence in which Kincaid digested this new information.

"Why _on earth_ would you put black Sharpie on your lips?" he asked, irritated at the irrationality of the action.

"I didn't have any black lipstick?" Mica tried as an excuse, not expecting much.

"You're grounded."

"Yeah, I kind of assumed." Kincaid had grounded his daughter so often that the words had completely lost their meaning. Even when they were said now- when he was obviously more irritated with her than usual- they lacked any kind of real meaning. They weren't said at a yell, or though clenched teeth; he was simply letting her know that her permanent status of _grounded_ was still in place. Not that she expected it to have lifted in her absence.

_I wonder what it is to not be grounded and living with a parent…A question I'll never know; I violate _The Rules_ far too often._

There was a brief silence, during which Mica pondered the meaning of being grounded, and Kincaid wondered why Mica was not saying anything and simply staring at a spot on the wall slightly over his left shoulder, a vacant expression on her face.

_Of course. She's lost her focus again._ Kincaid cleared his throat softly (though still somehow managed to convey irritation), redirecting her attention to him.

"When we arrive at the Ranger Academy- which is a boarding school- you will be staying with the other students in the girl's dorm. Since you are not enrolled and will not actually be taking classes there, while the other students are in class, you will be continuing your studies on Law, Sociology and the like. Understood?"

"Crystal." _I bunk in a dorm with wannabe rangers and read text books. What's not to get?_

There was another silence, this one slightly more awkward then the last, as father and daughter wondered what to do with themselves to pass the time.

"Er…can I go…sit on the deck?" Mica asked, wanting to spend as much time as possible out of the company of her father and eager to be able to spend some time with her pokemon.

Kincaid looked as though he was going to say no, but Mica wasn't overly concerned. It was something he always did; he would never say yes right off, he would always seem like he was about to say no, even if he had already decided it was okay. Mica wasn't sure why he did it, but it was an old habit of his.

_Hm, maybe to keep things interesting and suspenseful? After all, half the time he says no, I'm pretty sure he's doing it just for the hell of it._

"Fine. But do not go wandering around where you're not supposed to be." Mica smiled, promised she wouldn't, and dashed through the door and down the hallway, her father's all time favourite saying meeting her ears.

"No running in the halls!" She slowed her pace to a walk as she headed for the deck, not wanting to change her father's mind about allowing her to spend some time in his absence.

The deck was brushed by a light breeze, which carried with it the scent of the ocean. It was a cloudless day, and there were many other passengers milling around on the deck, enjoying the good weather. Mica looked around for a place to lounge and, seeing no adequate place to rest, simply sat at the edge of the deck, her feet hanging over the side and her forehead resting against the bar. She was pretty sure this kind of seating arrangement probably wasn't allowed, but she was out of view of the captain, and none of the crew members were telling her to move, so she wasn't too worried.

As promised, she let her team out as soon as she was settled, to allow them to get some fresh air and to talk about their battle with Silver. Horatio snuggled into her side, and she grabbed Biv up and put the clampearl on her lap. Charmander hovered close to her side, but didn't snuggle into her the way Horatio did. The four of them looked out onto the ocean for a few minutes, unsure about what to say about the situation at large. Well, truthfully, Charmander didn't quite know what the situation at large specifically was, but he didn't have much to say anyway. After a few seconds, Mica finally spoke up.

"So. Nicknames for Charmander? Go."

_Hm, not exactly what I thought we'd be talking about, but that's okay._ Horatio observed his fellow fire type for a few seconds before coming up with an answer.

"_Ginger._"

"We can't name him Ginger! That's a girl's name, and horribly uninspired."

"_Huh. Oberon._" This came from Biv, and earned a surprised glance from Mica. "_Well, we already have one Shakespearean character, why not make a theme?_"

_Geez, who _raised_ this pokemon?_ Mica thought to herself._ Apparently someone with knowledge of classical literature…and someone who felt the need to share that knowledge!_

"Hm, our little Charmander is quite the cutesy though," Mica said, causing Charmander to blush slightly. "Oberon is quite the manly name. We need something a little…" she fumbled for a word, "quainter? Aw, you know what I mean. Time to brainstorm! Charmander, you jump in too."

They spent the next ten minutes thinking up as many possible names for the little lizard as they could, ranging from the completely outrageous, such as _Siento Rouge_, a name that Mica thought up that sounded cool in other languages, but translated into a ridiculous English name. It was a combination of the Spanish word _Siento_ meaning 'sorry' and the French word 'rouge' meaning 'red'. There were also a couple of names for movie references brought up, such as Irazabeth ("That's the name of the Red Queen! Who's a _girl_!") and RoRo ("That's a nickname for Rosie! Horatio, I swear to Arceus, if you pick one more girl name…"). Eventually Mica sighed and turned to Horatio, who had been silent throughout the conversation, despite Mica urging him to jump in.

"Well, buddy? Let's see if we can tailor this to you. What do you want to do with yourself?" Charmander looked a little startled at being asked this, and looked out at the ocean for a few seconds before turning to Mica with shy eyes.

"_I want to…I want to fly._"

"Hm. A dream worthy of the noble dragon that you will someday be," Mica declared. "Okay, let's think of flying-related names."

"_Sky._"

"Horatio! Do you not know the gender of our new team mate? 'Sky' is the name of a valley girl, not a dignified _male_ like our Charmander. Come now, let's be serious." Biv just laughed a bit at this last statement, and Horatio looked incredulous.

"Quil quil, lavaaa," he muttered.

"I never said I wasn't," Mica responded to her pokemon, who had mumbled something about her being a hypocrite. She thought to herself as she watched some wingull circle overhead. Mica remembered back to a book she had read not too long ago. The book was constantly using the word 'zephyr' to describe a breeze, and seemed to refuse to use any sort of synonym for it. It was so overused by the author that Mica had gotten sick of reading it and stopped reading the book. But now that she thought back, well…it was a pretty cool word. She toyed with it in her mind for a bit before coming up with what she thought was a clever word play.

"Hey, what about 'Zefyre'? It's like a combination of 'zephyr' and 'fire'. You'd be a flaming zephyr!" Charmander (aka Zefyre) nodded eagerly at this name, happy to go with the first option that wasn't outrageous or a girl's name.

"_Perfect!_" He smiled at her.

"Alright, then from this day forth, you will be known as Zefyre! An incredibly precious member of this team and family, and a future aerial master to boot! Come here, you." Mica put her arm around Zefyre's shoulders and pulled him in close for a one armed hug. She put the other arm around Horatio and pulled her knees up so Biv was pulled slightly closer to her body as well. Mica maintained this awkward but happy link for a few seconds while Biv hummed in contentment and Horatio trilled happily. Zefyre seemed overjoyed at the contact and closed his eyes and rested the good half of his face on Mica's shoulder.

Mica pulled her arm off of Horatio to keep Biv in place once she ended the hug, but kept her arm around Zefyre, pleases at the fire lizard's cuddliness.

_I hope he stays like this. I do love to snuggle._

She sat, with Zefyre resting against her right shoulder, Horatio snuggled into her left and Biv on her lap, and thought about what lay ahead for her. It didn't look good; there were no other trainers in Almia, so there was no chance of her even sneaking in battles behind her father's back. Her pokemon would be stuck for long periods of time I their pokeballs without her being able to let them out even to stretch (she assumed that pokemon were not allowed in this 'Ranger Academy'). And, worst of all, she was back to living under her borderline tyrant of a father. With other teachers to impress and students to prove his dominance to he was sure to become even more strict and unforgiving than he was before. Not to mention that the rumours she had heard about rangers were that they were a bunch of do-gooders and tree huggers (she had never had an extended conversation with one while she lived in Almia…quite a feat, really). Not ideal people to be hanging around with when she would be itching to break _The Rules_ and let her pokemon out for a little practice battle with each other.

She sighed as these thoughts went through her head, and her distress must have translated itself to Zefyre, for he looked up at her with concerned eyes. Well, one concerned eye anyway, since the other was unable to open.

"Sorry little guy. Just thinking. I'm not sure how many battles I'm going to be able to have with you guys; where we're going doesn't exactly support that kind of sport." She sighed again as Horatio too looked up at her in concern. "It's just…I feel really stupid. A lot of people run away and their parents never hear from them again. I manage to get to another freaking region and I still can't stay under the radar for more than a month. I've been working hard, and I _know_ you guys are strong enough, but I still can't get my head in the game long enough to win against Silver."

"…_A tie is close_," Horatio mumbled, upset at his partner's lack of confidence and obvious frustration.

"But it's not close enough. I love you guys, but I really don't think I'm a good trainer. Whoop-de-do, I have two badges. The first leader was pathetic and the second I had a type advantage over. My only real gauge of strength is testing myself against Silver. And I _can't win_." She leaned forward and rested her forehead against the metal railing, closing her eyes. "Maybe Father's right. Maybe I am too immature to live on my own. After all, I can't even walk through a forest without attracting danger."

Since she had her eyes closed, she didn't notice Horatio cast a worried look at Zefyre, or that Biv had her shell firmly shut, trying to ignore her words. Nor did she notice that Zefyre had tears welled up in his eyes, fearing that this lack of confidence would lead to him being released once again and placed back into some sort of public care, where the word 'care' only referred to the physical needs of an organism.

* * *

_Stupid, dumbshit, _weak_ girl! She was more upset about the tie than the fact that she was leaving the friggin region!_

Silver fumed in the waiting room of the pokecentre, wanting his pokemon properly healed before challenging the Olivine Gym. It was taking an infuriatingly long time, he had been there for ten whole minutes, and Silver was sick of waiting as of…nine minutes ago. He desperately wanted to head over to the Olivine Gym and vent his rage on the unfortunate gym leader there.

_What is taking so damn long? Arceus, does that stupid nurse not understand that I have somewhere to be? This is absolutely ridiculous!_

To vent his rage, Silver kicked at a nearby trashcan. To his disappointment, it was empty, and so did not spill its contents all over the floor. It did, however, make a very satisfying _crash!_ when hit by his foot. It felt good to do, so he kicked it again, this time leaving a dent. Further stimulated by this destruction, he continued kicking around the empty metal trashcan and cussing under his breath until a nurse came over to stop him.

"S-sir! We ask that you refrain from vandalizing the pokecentre's property!"

"Well, _vandalization_," Silver spat the non-word at her as if the entire situation was her fault, "would not be necessary if I just got my friggin' pokemon so I could get _out_ of this dump and over to the gym!"

The nurse again asked him to refrain from destroying the centre's property before quickly leaving. Silver did, indeed, decide that he would refrain for another minute and a half before resuming his rampage. The nurse returned after a minute with her hands full of the boy's only three pokemon. Silver snatched them away without a word and stalked out of the pokecentre.

It was a short walk to the gym, and no infuriating puzzle inside that needed to be solved before he could get to the gym leader. It was just a straight shot with only a couple pathetic gym trainers in his way. Silver easily defeated them and continued on towards Jasmine, the gym leader.

He sized her up as he took a battle stance in front of her, readying Croconaw's pokeball as he did so. She was a petite girl who looked to be in her late teens. She wore soft clothes with soft curves to them and had a very soft face. Silver scoffed slightly at the idea that someone so fragile looking could ever successfully train steel types. He narrowed his eyes at the girl, pleased at the opportunity to vent more of his rage.

Jasmine introduced herself formally, and seemed a little intimidated by the hostility that the red headed challenger seemed to be emanating. Therefore, she didn't say anything more then she needed to and simply sent out her first pokemon, wanting to get this battle over with.

* * *

Mica sat on the edge of the deck with her head leaning against the railing for a long time. Or, at least, it felt like a long time. She could feel herself slowly beginning to freak out as the reality of her situation finally sunk in. A full on panic attack was close at hand, and that was not something she wanted to have on the deck of a boat.

…_And Father wonders why I'm a little off. Doesn't he know that stress causes, like, insanity?_

…_Ugh. _

Her stomach was churning, she had a headache. She wasn't a good trainer. She wasn't going to have the chance _to_ train. She wasn't worthy of her pokemon, they deserved to have a happy full life and become champions someday. Why couldn't she just stop and think things ahead? Why was she always so rash, that's how she ended up in this mess. If she had thought things through, she realized she could have waited till she turned 18, then even if she did get put in the hospital, they would not be obligated to call her father. She had just wanted a little freedom. That's all…

Her lips trembled, and she put a finger to them to try and stop herself from screaming or biting down on the railing in frustration.

_Probably still slightly black…how could I have been making a joke out of this? Hopping around…pretending to be goth just for the kick of it. Why didn't I realize what a big deal this is? I guess I just couldn't think ahead…again._

Horatio, sensing her distress, tried nuzzling into her neck, to no avail.

_Ah, she's spiralling again! She gets freaked out easily, I guess. Must stem from having a father where nothing is ever good enough… At least she seems to recover fast. Or, she recovered from her little downward plunge from losing against Silver pretty fast, anyway._

"_Mica…cheer up. It's not that bad. Or, it's not as bad as you think it is. C'mon, you're scaring Zefyre."_

Mica snuffled slightly, looking first at Horatio, then at Biv (who was still closed up on her lap) and finally at Zefyre, who was indeed bordering on tears.

"Hng! Little guy, don't cry! What's the matter?" she asked him, alarmed.

"_Y-you don't want to be a trainer anymore…that means you're gonna send me away. I don't want to be sent away again! It's scary…_"

"Ah, it's not that I don't want to be a trainer! It's that I want to be a different trainer than the one I am now. I'm slow to process thing- obviously- but quick to react. I don't even really know how I tied with Silver with that attitude. But I know I want to keep training. And after the short time we've spent together, I know you'll make an amazing addition to this team. I may not think I'm worthy of you, but I still love-" at this point in her little uplifting speech, however, Biv decided to interrupt with a rather loud and uncharacteristically deep snore. Mica was startled enough to halt mid speech, and the three of them just stared at the apparently slumbering Biv for a few seconds, before Mica broke the ice.

"Pffft…pfft!" She tried to hold in her laughter, she really did. But Biv's timing was just too perfect, and it distracted her from her panicking nicely. It just seemed so completely out of place; here she was, presenting this lovely speech to reassure her scared pokemon, fighting a minor mental breakdown, on her way to be cut off from the training world. And there was Biv…sleeping. Apparently this wasn't exciting enough for the oversized oyster.

Horatio joined in the laughing, obviously amused as well. Even Zefyre had a broad grin on his face, and looked up at Mica with such innocent hopefulness that she couldn't help but pull her half blind pokemon into a tight, one armed hug. He squealed in happiness, and Mica realized that was a better way to reassure him then a little 'I love you' speech anyway.

The rest of the trip passed by a little happier. Mica was still rather worried about what she would do when she got to Almia, but Biv's well-placed snore had at least defended her from a complete breakdown. Funny how laughter could do that.

* * *

Jasmine's team, though able to give Silver quite an interesting battle, were defeated after almost half an hour of intense strategies and strong hits. Jasmine seemed somewhat distracted as she handed Silver his new league badge to acknowledge his victory.

"I guess it's a good thing this is over now anyway…I have to go tend to Amphy. He's sick…needs to be looked after, and if he's not…" she trailed off, apparently not wanting to say out loud what could happen to 'Amphy'.

_Hmph. Sick pokemon, huh? I may not have been able to defeat Mica properly, but I can beat down this pathetic leader. In more ways then one._

"You've been spending your time caring for a sick pokemon instead of training? No wonder you're so weak. How pathetic, to spend you're time with a pokemon that can't even _battle_ instead of training to be less of a weakling." Jasmine looked shocked at his words, but seemed to find the courage to stand up to him, much to Silver's pleasure.

"Amphy is a brave and courageous pokemon! He lights the way for sailors at night so they don't crash, and he does it all by himself."

"He lights the way for sailors? That's what a lighthouse is for. We have _machines_ that can do a better job and won't get sick. A pokemon that can't battle is useless anyway. Just let the thing die and buy a light bulb." Silver smirked at the horrified look on Jasmine's face. "Oh, got a problem with that? You're soft, inside and out. There's no way you could effectively train a steal type. No wonder you're so damn _pathetic_." Jasmine had tears in her eyes at this point, but she was angry by now too. She regretted handing away her badge, and if she could have, she would have taken it from the boy and refused to grant it to him until he apologized. But he already had it, and something told her she would not be able to wrestle it away from him. The mental image that conjured up was somewhat ridiculous, and she didn't want to embarrass herself. So she did the only thing she could.

"Get the _hell-_" Silver's eyebrows shot up at the use of a swear word, surprised to hear it from the 'soft' gym leader- "out of my gym. Now." Silver gave her one last smirk, but turned on his heal and left the gym.

_Huh. Maybe…not such a softy? Whatever. That's not important._

He considered going back to the pokecentre to heal his pokemon and bunk for the night before heading out again, but then remembered his earlier antics there. Something told him he wouldn't be welcomed back, and the rooms would probably be inexplicably all rented out. Guess it was another night sleeping outside.

* * *

"Passengers, this is your captain speaking. I would just like to inform you that we are approximately ten minutes away from Pueltown, and will be docking shortly."

Mica sighed at the announcement and returned her pokemon to their respective pokeballs, her inner stress rising again. Though not to the same extent as before. She returned to her room to await her arrival to Almia with her father.

* * *

**A/N I AM SO SORRY! This update was ridiculously slow. But I have an explanation, I do I do! My computer got a HORRIBLE DISEASE! It took a while to get it back up to health, and we only barely missed out on getting amnesia. I'm sorry if this chappie isn't quite up to snuff- I wrote it in a bit of a rush, and did a crasher of an edit. Yup. A crasher. Nope. Don't know what I think that means.**

**Anyway, updates will be better again. And sorry…again…ALSO…**

**SPAMMMMMM: Read my Go Rock Quads fanfic fools! Bahaha, I love spamming that thing **


	11. Arrival

Mica and her father were jostled off the boat and eventually managed to extract themselves from the crowd, though only to get on a crowded bus a minute later. The bus ride, like the boat ride, was long; though unlike the boat ride, Mica couldn't spend most of the trip with her pokemon, which made it much more boring. The bus ride was a bit over an hour- it would have been shorter, but the bus stopped in the oddest spots numerous times; Mica nearly squealed in frustration when they inexplicably stopped in the middle of a forest and stayed there for ten minutes. No one got off. Kincaid was having trouble reigning in his frustration too.

"For the love of the pokegods, this isn't a tour bus. Unless this bus driver is so inadequate that he has stalled the bus, we should be moving by now," he hissed under his breath at one point. Mica huffed in agreement, something that rarely happened. It wasn't that Mica was anxious to get to their destination, she was just so _exhausted_. Travelling all day had worn her out, and she was more than ready to collapse into whatever bed was provided for her, even if it was among goody goody rangers. Being tired meant being grumpy which, oddly enough, meant that she didn't get on her father's nerves once. They actually got along fairly well when they were both grumpy- something that struck Mica as being the inverse of a normal father-daughter relationship.

_Maybe we're actually super similar, but he's just grumpy all the time so I can't tell. That means the only time we're in synch…is when we're pissed. Lovely. Nice and functional._

…_No, that's not necessarily true,_ Mica corrected herself, albeit grudgingly. _There were times…they haven't happened for years now, but there used to be times when we would get along, and we would both be in a good mood._

She remembered back, way back (she couldn't have been more than fourteen at the time) when there were days on end that would go by without a single fight between them. Her little mini classes with her father were bonding times, instead of daily tortures. They could talk to each other, and at normal volume too. He would put up with her shenanigans, and even occasionally crack a smile. They still fought often, but the rate was down to once a week then, not…whenever they spoke, like it seemed to be now. It had gotten to the point now where their fighting seemed completely meaningless, and they didn't even bother shouting most of the time. At least the arguments from when she was younger held some kind of meaning, and they could work out an answer to their problems.

_Geez, I had almost forgotten about the good old days_, she thought, a bit nostalgically. _Why did that have to change?_ _We had, like, the perfect straight man funny man routine going._ She peeked at her father, his eyes hard, age lines around his face that were far beyond his years. It jolted her to remember that, even though she was seventeen years old, her father was only thirty-eight, even though he looked like he could be in his fifties.

_He's had a stressful life…_ It didn't change anything for her to remember that, it didn't mean that she would be more understanding to her father, but that thought did evoke a spark of sympathy for the tyrant beside her. And, also tied with that thought, came an uninvited, unpleasant, and completely unwanted image of her mother's face. Her hair was curly, and the same dirty-blond that Mica's was. She was tan, and her eyes- eyes that were _exactly_ like Mica's- sparkled with life and enthusiasm, meaning that the image her mind gave her was one from before…

_Go away! _She thought angrily, shoving the mental image away and pushing tears back beneath her eyes. _That is the last thing I need to be thinking about now. I shouldn't have let my mind wander like this. It's not good for me_, she internally scolded herself.

_Think now…training. _It was a good subject to distract herself with; not only did she have the challenge of raising Biv now, since she was lingering behind, but she also had a half blind fire lizard that would need extra attention.

_Hm, I bet if we can strengthen his hearing, we'll be able to avoid sneak attacks from his blind side. Or maybe…_ she continued to distract herself with thoughts on training Biv and Zefyre. She kept her eyes carefully averted from the man sitting next to her, and mentally slapped herself whenever her mind reminded her that there was no purpose to training when there weren't any trainers to battle with. She kept her mind occupied trying to think of effective ways to train her team. And, when she ran out of ways that were effective, she began thinking of ways to make training more…interesting.

_We'll have a pokemon-chucking competition! We'll all take turns and see who can throw Biv the farthest! We'll call it…pokechucking!_

…_It's nice how, whenever you want to make something apply to pokemon, you just add the prefix 'poke'._ She mused, effectively distracted by her shallow thoughts.

"Alright, last stop: Ranger Academy! I guess that's you two then, folks!" their overly-jolly bus driver announced. Kincaid stiffly stood up and strode off the bus without a word, silently conveying his dissatisfaction. Mica made a point of imitating him to a tea, though with wide, psychotic looking eyes to show she wasn't being serious. It was her way of apologizing to the busdriver, and he seemed to accept it. She was still frustrated with the eccentric driving patterns of the man, but decided that if she wanted to get away with being different here, she would have to accept other people as well. And besides, it was pretty much her role to follow around behind her father in public places, apologizing to everyone he offended.

_Just like back at the hospital_, she thought, stifling a yawn._ Geez, get me to bed._

"Well, this is the Ranger Academy. I'll get a student to show you around, and then you're expected to go straight to bed. It's late." Kincaid explained to her. Mica got the feeling that as soon as said student took her out of sight, he would slip off to bed himself. There was no way she was the only one exhausted from the travelling.

They walked through the dark grounds with Kincaid pointing at a couple of buildings and places and saying names that meant nothing to her (she would later remember them as 'Ascension Square' and 'Mr. Kaplan and Ms. Clair's classroom'). Once in the school Kincaid paged a woman he addressed as 'Janice' and requested she send a student down to show Mica around before she went to bed.

_Thump-thump-thump-thump_

Large footfalls could be heard coming down the stairs; Mica assumed that their owner was someone who was either rather fat or rather tall. The boy that appeared at the bottom of the stairs was of the former category; he was short, with a pleasantly chubby face and a mop of greenish hair.

_Humph. So Janice sent Ponte down_, Kincaid thought, looking at the nervous boy. _At least it's not one of the three trouble makers. It'd be best to try and keep them away from Mica._

"Ponte. This is my daughter, Mica. Mica, this is Ponte; he's a student ranger here at the school." Ponte's eyes bugged at the word 'daughter' but he was at least smart enough (or scared enough) not to interrupt the strict teacher.

"Hey, Ponte." _Hah. Cute chubby kid. Couple years younger then me? Le's be friendssssss_

_Arceus, I'm too tired for this nonsense._

"Hullo," Ponte mumbled under his breath, apparently unsure about what to think about the daughter of the strictest teacher in the school. The man scared the crap out of poor Ponte; the boy sincerely hoped his daughter wasn't the same. He didn't think he could handle that kind of stress.

"Mica will not be attending classes here as a student, but she will be residing here and pursuing her own studies. Therefore, she will need to know the layout of the school. You are to give her a tour and then go _straight to bed_. No wandering the halls once the tour is complete. Understood?" Kincaid would have rather had a student show Mica around in the morning, but between letting a student out a night to show her around and letting a student out of _class_ to show her around, he chose what he considered to be the lesser of two evils. At least Ponte would be too scared to dare disobey him.

"Y-yes sir." Ponte straightened up as he answered, and Mica was honestly surprised to see that he didn't salute as well.

"Very well then. I will be in my own quarters whilst you are showing her around." Kincaid turned on his heel and left at this; much to Mica's surprise. In her mind, the return to Almia meant having her father over her shoulder every minute of every day; it was mildly surprising to see him leave so fast.

"Hn. He's gone!" She fell to her knees in a joyous (but rather quiet) celebration. Ponte looked a little alarmed.

"Um, yes?" he answered, a little unsure still. "Well, I guess I'll show you our classrooms then…"

"Ho-kay."

The next ten minutes comprised of Ponte and Mica walking around the school, not talking much, and with Ponte pointing out various rooms ("This is Mr. Kincaid's- er, your dad's- classroom") and forbidden areas ("That's the basement. That's where Mr. er- Kincaid's lab is. We aren't allowed down there). Mica was vaguely interested in the library, wondering what kind of selection the school had. Lucian had gotten her quite hooked on reading, being a big reader himself. They spent a few minutes in there, until Ponte started to get jumpy and said he wanted to finish up the tour so they could get to bed.

_I guess what I heard was right_, Mica sighed. _Rangers are well meaning, but major do-gooders. I guess that's why Father can tolerate them._

Once the tour was over, it was time for Mica and Ponte to head up to where the students bunked down for the night. On the second floor were maybe fifty or so boys and girls that were lounging around before it was time for lights out. And all fifty of them went silent as Ponte walked in with a new kid. Mica could practically hear their thoughts.

_Ah! Fresh meat._

It was a little scary for Mica. Fifty boys and girls, all dressed in the same green uniform, and all probably knowing one another, all looking at her with what appeared to be rabid curiosity.

_Not the stares of do-gooders!_ Mica thought, a little panicked now. Ponte broke the silence.

"Um, this is Mica. She's not a student, but apparently she's living here now. She's, uh, Mr. Kincaid's daughter." There was another few seconds of silence as the students processed the information. A boy with spiky reddish-brown hair was the first to break it.

"Mr. Kincaid's _daughter_? Legit? Oh no. He's sent in a spy!"

"No no, don't assume that just yet, Keith," a girl with spiky brown pigtails interrupted, a little fearfully. "So, like, how similar are you two then?" She asked, apparently trying to illicit information about her.

Mica scrunched her face up a bit at this, not entirely sure how to answer. How similar were they, really? "Well," she began. "We're both absolutely completely insane, I think. But in completely different ways, you know?"

"Not really," Spiky-pigtails replied.

"Well, he's nuts about rules, and I'm…" _Er, what am I then? And what is with this deep, psychological question?_ "Eccentric?" She tried. "A trainer in a ranger's school!" She burst out, realizing exactly what she was. "I'm taboo!"

"That's so cool!" Spiky red-hair (Keith?) replied.

"Why did Kincaid let you become a trainer?" another boy, with loose, chocolate brown hair asked. He had matching chocolate eyes, and a cowlick at the top of his head.

_Kind of like Silvers_, Mica thought._ He's also…kind of cute._

_Wait…am I referring to Silver or chocolate-eyes?_

"Um," Mica began, pulling herself away from her confusing thoughts. "He didn't let me…per se," she said sheepishly. _Oh no…the judgement of being a Bad Kid is soon to upon me._ "I pretty much just…ran away."

More silence. And then…

"That's cool," Keith commented, surprising Mica. Kate nodded in agreement.

"Not really," a blond boy mumbled from the corner. His hair was styled in a bowl cut, and he appeared deep in thought.

"Sure it is, Isaac," spiky-pigtails replied slyly. "We now have someone who has successfully escaped Kincaid. She knows his secrets. She will be our greatest asset!"

"Hoo-rah," a girl with blond curly hair said. "Well, let's provide our new weapon with our names then, shall we? I'm Rhythmi, and the girl with pigtails is Kate," spiky-pigtails smiled.

"I'm Keith, mushroom head over there is Isaac," the reddish haired boy said, motioning to the blond boy with a bowl cut. Blondie (Isaac) waved vaguely. "And this serious lad here is Kellyn." The boy with chocolate brown hair nodded at her.

"Hi all," Mica said, a grin growing on her face. _Greatest asset? Could they be referring to…tom foolery? Maybe this isn't so bad…_

"Oh! I should introduce my friends!" Mica realized, releasing her three pokemon. Horatio, Zefyre, and Biv all materialized on the floor, and seemed to impress the would-be rangers.

"Well, the oversized oyster there is Biv," said oyster muttered something Mica couldn't hear and shut her shell. _Antisocial, as always._ Mica sighed. "And the charmander there is Zefyre; he's my newest catch; I adopted him from the hospital."

"Char…" Zefyre seemed a little nervous at all the stares, and went around to hide behind Mica.

"Hospital?" Kellyn asked.

_Oops_. "Er, I sustained an injury before I got here. It's how my dad found me, since they had to call him." An idea struck Mica. "Want to see the stitches? They aren't even fully healed yet!"

"Hells yes!"

"Sure!" Kate and Keith both bounded forward at the opportunity, though they were the only ones. Regardless, Mica pulled up her top just enough to show the two of them her yet-to-heal cuts."

"Gruesome!"

"Can I touch it?" Keith asked.

"No! It still kind of hurts. I'm not even supposed to move around to much, in case it rips them."

"Ewwww." That came from Rhythmi.

"Hey, don't be so negative, Rhyth, We're got to make new kid feel _welcome_," Keith said, turning to the blond.

"But I'm squeamish!"

"That's okay!" Mica exclaimed, happy that these students didn't all seem to be do-gooders. "Anyway, this quilava here is Horatio; he's my first pokemon and number one partner!"

"Quil! La-va!" Horatio greeted, not as shy as Zefyre or Biv were.

"Well, your pokemon all seem pretty healthy, apart from a few minor injuries," Kellyn noted.

"Yeah, we had a battle before we got here…"

"But what about the massive cut over Zefyre's eye?" Kellyn continued, not responding to Mica's comment.

"Oh. That. Well, the trainer that had Zefyre before me was…less than kind. And other trainers are stupid and think he can't battle, so I took him in. Also, he's super sweet and lovely." She looked down and gave her pokemon a little smile.

"That's really cool of you. But how did that battle go?" Kate asked, bouncing up in Mica's face, bubbling with curiosity.

_Ugh, happy girl, I am rather tired._

"Pretty good, I guess. We tied."

Questions continued to be pummelled into her, all stemming from Kellyn, Keith, Rhythmi and Kate. The other students had resumed their previous chatting, and a few had wandered off to bed. Eventually, Mica demanded that someone show her to her bed _right now_…she was super tired.

Kate and Rhythmi showed her to where the girls' dorm was, and showed her to an empty bed. She didn't bother to changed, just took her socks and shoes off (was she supposed to have taken her shoes off before coming inside?...oh well) and flopped into bed. She returned Biv to her pokeball, since she didn't seem to care if she was out or in, and a giant clam isn't a nice thing to have in bed anyway, but let Zefyre and Horatio cuddle with her in her bed.

_Hm. Well, at least the people aren't too bad. Just throw some trainers in here and get me away from Father, and I guess we'll be all set._

_Oh, and bring Silver over here. For laughs._

* * *

**A/N Was that a better update? I certainly hope so. I would have actually had this up sooner, but FF is being WEIRD AS F*** and wouldn't let me log in. So this will have to do. Will you review? I believe so. Also, to anonomys reviewer R.Y.N.O., yes, I know that panic attack was way out of whack in terms of timing, but like I said, I was in a rush. When I do the big overhaul of an edit for this story, at the end, that will be fixed.**

**Hm, who's the first author ever to combine Kellyn, Keith, and Kate and Silver into one logical story? That's right. Sweet but Psycho. I think I should get some sort of award. **

**SPAM Melody of Ambition! The hottest Go Rock Quads story ever to grace .**

**If I spam that enough, eventually someone will meander on over to it and R&R it. If that person is you, say you got there from here, and I will stop spamming. Promise.**


	12. Bad Day

_This path...is completely ridiculous and not thought out!_

Silver was fuming to himself as he tried to make it over to Mahogany Town via cutting through a forest. It wasn't working out too well for the aspiring master trainer; sharp twigs from branches kept reaching out and snagging his hair, pulling it back in a painful twinge. Roots were constantly weaving up from the ground and ensnaring his ankles, and worst of all, walking through the thick of a forest seemed to mean that you were twice as likely to meet a wild pokemon than if you were walking through the long grass that habitually grew up on more commonly used paths. Not that where he was walking was much of a path, but for some reason he had come to call it that in his mind.

"Pony! Ponyta!" A wild ponyta had just decided to take a flying leap at the boy, forcing him to summon his croconaw out to battle for the umpteenth time that day.

"Croco...NAW!" At first the little crocodile had sounded weary, but then had spotted its opponent and let out a mighty yell.

"Hmph. The pokemon version of a cuss?" Croconaw looked back at his trainer, looking oddly hopeful. "Whatever." The alligator sighed and turned back to the fire horse, shoulders slumped. "Water Gun!"

The blast of water hit Ponyta head on, doing some major damage to the younger pokemon. But it was still somehow hanging on to consciousness, though only just. It managed to shoot off an Ember towards Croconaw, who promptly dodged the attack and followed up with scratch, on Silver's orders. Ponyta fainted instantly, but when Silver looked behind him-

"Oh _shit_!" A large, but very dead and dry tree had gone up in flames as a result of Ponyta's Ember and was quickly setting the nearby tree tops on fire as well. "Croconaw, put it out with Water Gun, now." Croconaw's Water Gun, though strong enough to put out the fire on the dead tree alone, was not enough to follow its quickly spreading path of destruction to the other trees. Soon, Silver could count at least five separate trees that had caught fire. Croconaw was trying to keep up with it, but it was pretty hopeless.

When faced with such overwhelming conditions, a man can do one of two things. He can either curl up in a ball and wait for death to over take him, or he can grow a pair, use his spine, man up and-

"GOD DAMN SHIT SHIT FU-"

Swear, in Silver's case.

* * *

Far off, in distant Mahogany town, a little girl turned towards the forest, concern etched on her face.

"Mommy, did you hear that? It sounded like a ferocious barking. I think something's being eaten by a monster!"

"Now, now honey, I don't think that's a monster," the girl's mother said, pulling her child closes. "But I will call for rangers...because they exist to bend to our every vague concern!"

Had any Union ranger heard the woman say that, she probably would have been egged. Patrolling towns and listening to citizens whine was the bane of a ranger's existence. However, the woman didn't know this, and so preceded to contact the Ranger Union.

* * *

"Pokemon ranger Ben! This is headquarters. I realize that you are just getting back from your heatran mission, but you're the only ranger in the area at the moment. The Union needs you to investigate the source of loud swearing in the forest outside of Mahogany Town. Criminals could be afoot in there, disrupting the peace of the forest. Understood?" The boy, Ben, dressed in the typical red garb of most rangers and flying on the back of a staraptor, answered his styler immediately.

"Understood, headquarters. I'm on my way!" He directed his staraptor- who was previously en route to the Union in Almia- to swerve in the direction of the aforementioned forest.

"Pichu!" _Twang_.

His partner pokemon, a ukulele playing pichu, cheered him on from his shoulder.

* * *

Back at the forest- which was now fully ablaze, as far as Silver could see- Croconaw had given up trying to put the blaze out, and was instead trying to Water Gun his way to a straight path out of the forest, his cussing trainer following behind. He stopped when he passed by the same rock that the two of them had ran by ten minutes earlier, however. Both trainer and pokemon stared at said rock, completely dumbfounded. Until Silver spoke up, at least.

"_Shit_! Are you serious? We're not even going in a straight line? Screw this. Gastly," he summoned his ball of ghostly gas, "use teleport and get us out of here!"

"_Gasss_…"

"I don't care if you couldn't use it before, learn now! Can't you see it's a dire situation?"

"_Gasss…_"

"Useless thing!" Now overwhelmed with anger and panic (though, oddly, panic was the lesser emotion) Silver swung a fist at his floating pokemon. Unfortunately- or fortunately, depending on how you look at it- his fist wasn't able to make contact, and simply swung right through the pokemon's gaseous body.

"Arceus damn it all!"

At that point, however, Silver's raging was interrupted by a boy, around Silver's age, bursting through the slightly flaming foliage.

"Pokemon ranger Ben, ready for duty!"

"…"

"I guess you're the source of the 'loud swearing' then? It could be heard all the way over in Mahogany town!"

"…"

"Well, no need to swear now. Because I'm a pokemon ranger, and it's my job to protect people and pokemon!" Striking a little pose and flashing the peace sign with his fingers, Ben smiled at the boy.

"…"

"Pi! Pichu!" _Twang_.

The appearance of a smiling pichu carelessly playing a ukulele finally brought Silver to talk to the bizarre boy.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"Hey, no need to shout! I told you, I'm a pokemon ranger. I befriend wild pokemon with my styler," he showed Silver the styler on his wrist, "to be able to use their powers for a little bit. I help keep nature healthy and balanced, so they sent me out put out this fire!"

"You can't _befriend_ pokemon, you idiot-"

_Twang_.

"And why the hell does your freak of a pichu have a ukulele?" Silver demanded, pointing at the pichu.

"To help spread good feelings with his music!"

_This kid…is a whole in a whole other league of insanity_, Silver thought.

"That doesn't make any sense! A pichu doesn't have thumbs or fingers; it shouldn't be able to play a ukulele."

_Twang_.

"Well, he can. See?" Ben looked at his partner, wanting him to play another cord for the boy. A flaming branch fell off a tree behind him, not that he noticed. Gastly and Croconaw were all staring at the boy with slightly dumbfounded faces, apparently surprised that someone like Ben could even meet someone like Silver in any kind of comprehendible universe.

_Twang_.

Silver stared at the incomprehensible, and sickeningly cute, pokemon before him. He decided it was simply too offensive to even continue questioning.

"…Whatever. So how do you plan on putting out this fire then, _pokemon ranger Ben_?"

"With Rain Dance, of course!"

_Oh no. He's not actually going to dance, is he?_ Silver backed away a step, now unsure about whether he was just having a really bizarre dream, or if he had just somehow met a whack job hermit who lived in the forest. Ben looked pretty clean though…

"Alright Blastoise, come on out and use Rain Dance!" Much to Silver's relief, a large Blastoise came lumbering out from the trees and fired something into the sky, causing it to cloud over and start to drizzle.

"A single Rain Dance isn't going to put out a fire, you idiot!" _Why am I having such a bad day?_

"I know," ranger Ben replied. "That's why I captured two others on the way here. You two come out and use rain dance too!" Two more Blastoise lumbered out and, like the first, fired from the canons in their backs into the sky, strengthening the first rain dance and causing it to absolutely pour.

"Why didn't you just ask them to use Rain Dance all at the same time?" Silver fumed, oddly unrelieved that the fire was going out since it was at the cost of him getting soaked.

"Good job friends, thank you so much!" Ben, completely ignoring Silver, congratulated the blastoise trio, released them and watched them lumber off.

"Well come on then. Let me show you out of this forest. Mahogany Town isn't far from here, is it okay if I lead you there?" Ben asked.

"…Fine." _This didn't have to happen,_ Silver thought to himself, remembering back to Olivine City, where he decided that the next ferry to Cianwood City would take too long to arrive, and so headed off to Mahogany Town instead.

"Alright then. Let's go!"

"Pi! Pichu!" Pichu, apparently no longer satisfied with a little 'twang,' began playing its own full length song as it walked alongside its partner. Silver returned his two pokemon to their pokeballs and followed behind Ben.

_I really should have waited for that ferry_, he thought to himself.

* * *

"Hey, um Mica? Time to wake up. Mica? _Mica_!" Rhythmi hovered over Mica's bed, unsure if she had to get up with the rest of the rest of the students, but knew she had to if she wanted breakfast. However, the new girl was proving rather unresponsive, along with the pokemon she had cuddled in bed with her. "Wake up! You need breakfast!"

"Hnnng?" At the mention of food, Mica grunted oddly and rolled over, knocking Zefyre out of bed and causing Horatio to give a muffled 'vaaa,' which translated roughly into the same sound Mica had made.

"Yes, that's right. Food, Mica. You need to be up for it." Finally, Mica sat up and bed and rubbed her eyes, looking uncomprehendingly at Rhythmi, not able to remember who she was but sure she had said something about breakfast.

"Finally. C'mon, breakfast ends at eight thirty, and it's quarter past now. Also, you really shouldn't sleep with that charmander. It could have rolled over and put its tail on the bed." She chastised the girl. "Its _flaming_ tail." She added, just in case the sleepy teen didn't quite understand her point.

"…Food," was Mica's only response, the rest of Rhythmi's speech obviously didn't quite get through. "Come on gang, let's eat." She dragged herself out of bed, grabbed Biv's pokeball so she could eat to, and led the way out to the dinging room, her two fire pokemon following behind. She stifled a yawn and forgot to give a proper greeting to Rhythmi.

_Mew, I am not a morning person_.

Breakfast was pretty standard, consisting of all the regular breakfast options. Bacon, eggs, toast, sausage, cereal and various fruits. Mica was disappointed to see no pancakes or French toast, but that was okay. She filled her plate up and gave her pokemon the foods that were non-greasy (mainly just the fruit and the cereal). The food was pretty good, but about halfway through her meal a blond boy with a bowl cut she vaguely remembered from the night before came up and set a rather heavy textbook beside her.

"This is from Mr. Kincaid. He says you're to have chapters five, six and seven read by Friday." It was Wednesday. Mica sighed slightly, knowing this wasn't the end. "He also wants you to complete the review questions on page seventy two."

"Right. Thanks, um…" Mica wondered vaguely if she had been told this boy's name. Something told her she had.

"Isaac."

"Right. Sorry. Isaac, thanks." A thought occurred to her. "Hey, how come you've already seen Fa- er, Kincaid this morning?"

"He gives me my assignments in the morning, which I then complete throughout the day in the library."

"You don't go to class?"

"No, Mr. Kincaid says I'm too…er…" Isaac tried to think of a way to say what he meant modestly, but couldn't come up with anything. Luckily, Mica seemed to guess the reason herself.

"Intelligent?" She asked, causing Isaac to smile slightly.

"Ah, yes. Too intelligent to study with the rest of the class." He finished.

"Kind of like an enrichment program, huh?" Isaac nodded. "Hey, do you mind if I sit with you in the library then?" _So I can bug you with ridiculous questions?_

"That would be fine." _It would be interesting to hear about the trainer's culture_, Isaac considered.

"Cool beans! Thanks a bunch." Mica smiled and returned to her plate of food, which she found empty, since Horatio had taken all her breakfast while she had been talking. "Horatio! That food is too greasy, you're going to feel sick," she told her gluttonous pokemon, who just smiled at her and licked his chops.

The rest of breakfast passed by uneventfully, and Mica decided that next up was a shower, since she was still in her clothes from yesterday's travelling. She let Horatio and Zefyre explore the girl's dorm and set Biv on a windowsill where she would have a nice view of the grounds below. She grabbed a new set of clothes and headed to the bathroom, assuming that there'd be towels in there.

Once in the bathroom, she set the water on and stripped while she waited for it to heat up. Behind her was an unfortunately placed mirror, and she unconsciously began assessing herself from the head down. Her hair was bland and just hung limply no matter what she tried to do with it (which was why she had stopped trying). Her face was spotted with pimples, and she poked one unhappily, not understanding why she had to have them while other people had perfect skin. Her collarbone stuck out nicely, she supposed, but that was only because she was too scrawny for it not to. There was a nasty red blotch that went across her chest and dipped slightly onto her left breast; her father told her it was a birthmark, but to Mica it looked like someone had spilled wine on her as a child and the stain had just never come out. Her breasts themselves were too small to compensate for her ugly chest. Her arms were long and bony, and they stuck out at weird angles. Her stomach was flat, if soft, and her hipbones stuck out far too much. She also took note of her knobbly knees.

_At least I have nice eyes_, she thought lamely before stepping into the shower.

Unfortunately for her, she was too absorbed in her reverse-narcissism that she didn't stick her hand under the water first to check the temperature. As such, she let out a strangled yelp as she stepped into freezing water. Because, of course, the girls that had woken up earlier had used up all the hot water.

* * *

**A/N Yikes, sorry for the extremely slow update to what was really not much more than a filler. Excuses, I have none. Well, except Silver was being a jerk and refused to cooperate, which frustrated me so I just let this sit for a while…love you guys…**

**Also, R.Y.N.O. (you should make your own account so I can actually RESPOND to your reviews) pppsshhh, you thought you offended me? Haha, you are going to have to be WAY nastier to break through this tough skin of mine. Also, a blast from Biv's Water Gun isn't an adequate reward!**

**I just realized I should probably clear something up. As far as capitalization goes, I only capitalize when it's referencing the name of a specific pokemon, if it's just being used to describe the species as a whole, it's not a proper noun so I won't capitalize. That may be obvious to some, but I thought I should clarify for others.**

**Oh, what's this? I snuck happy-go-lucky Ben in this fic too. Geez…it's a pokeblender fic!**

**Review. QUICKLY!**


	13. Beginning of Mischief

**A/N Oh? Oh what's this? An update? Praise your choice of deity! Seriously though, I am incredibly sorry for the awful lateness of this. But t'is the season for school to be like 'mwahaha, let's overload her with homework so she can't do anything but school related activities for the next two months(ish)!' *insert frowny face here*. Be thankful this happened. Although I think, from this point on, you can expect one update a week. Yup, that's right. I'm committing myself. I'll decide at the bottom of this which day of the week you can expect updates.**

**Also, a hug from Zefyre to whoever can spot the Black Adventures reference!**

* * *

"Awesome sauce! We made it to Mahogany town! Mission clear!" Pokemon ranger Ben again struck a pose whilst his partner strummed on its ukulele. Silver simply glared at the duo. Ben held the pose for a few more seconds before deflating under Silver's piercing stare. "So, uh, what are your plans now?" Ben asked Silver.

"I'm challenging the gym, idiot." As he said so, Silver turned on his heal and headed in what he thought was the right direction. Strangely, his faith in his own sense of direction had not been diminished in the slightest from his getting lost in the flaming woods.

"Oh! But you need to heal your pokemon friends before you go, don't you?" Ben, completely unperturbed by Silver's coldness started following the increasingly annoyed red head.

"They're not my friends," he hissed, stopping to face the annoying boy. "Pokemon are tools to help you grow stronger and nothing more or less. It's soft hearted wimps like you that are the reason idiots like Team Rocket find it so easy to walk all over everyone."

"Tools? Aw, you don't mean that. Of course you love your pokemon!" _Twang_. "But how did Team Rocket get into this conversation?"

"What? How dare you…Love?" Ben's words had completely flustered Silver, who was not at all used to people reacting to him so nonchalantly. He decided to default back to his usual course of action, which was to become angry and unreasonable. "It was just a damn example," he snapped.

"Oh. Okay then! Well, let's go to the pokemon centre then," Ben cheerily grabbed Silver by the wrist and began leading Silver in the opposite direction, which surprised him enough with the physical contact that he didn't even resist. Well, not for a few seconds, anyway.

"What-what are you doing? Don't touch me!" Silver yanked his wrist out of the boy's hand and stopped. "I thought I told you that I didn't need to go to a pokemon centre!"

"What? You never said that…" Ben said, thinking back in the conversation.

"Pichu!" _Twang_. His partner supported him.

"Well, I don't." Silver replied shortly, turning around and again heading in the direction that he thought the gym was in.

"Of course you do!" Ben started following Silver, smiling and chatting away, completely oblivious to Silver irritation. "And besides, this will be the first gym battle I've ever seen. I want to make sure that your pokemon are in top condition." _Twang_.

"Who the hell said you could watch my gym battle!" Silver exploded at the boy. "Don't you have a job to do?"

"Don't worry," Ben said, still following Silver. "I can just set my status to 'on patrol' and the Union won't bother me."

"Oh, so you're lying to them?" Silver said, trying to guilt the boy into leaving.

"Nope! I can patrol wherever I want. In a gym, on the streets, in the forest, absolutely anywhere!"

_Twang_.

"Tch! You're persistent." _I think I might hate this kid. _

"You bet!" Ben smiled at this and actually _put his arm around Silver's shoulders_.

"Gah! I thought I told you not to touch me!" Silver, slightly panicked, immediately launched his fist into Ben's side. The pokemon ranger immediately keeled over, grasping his side. Oddly, Pichu seemed rather unconcerned and simply started playing the same tinny song that it had played in the forest.

_Hmph. Maybe now the wimp will leave me alone_, Silver thought, watching the ranger trying to catch his breath. _I wonder how he'll react to outright violence?_

After a few seconds, Ben straightened up again, gasping. "Huh. You're not really the touchy-feely type, then?" Silver glared at him, making sure that the boy knew he did not feel sorry at all. "Don't worry about it! I don't mind. Although I would advise you not to use violence next time. Words can speak louder than actions!"

"IDIOT! I wasn't apologizing!"

_Twang_. And then Silver snapped.

"ENOUGH OF THAT EFFING UKULELE!" Snatching the little string instrument away from Pichu, Silver promptly began running towards where he thought the gym was, intent on chucking the ukulele in the first convenient dumping zone.

"Hey, wait up. No fair!" Ben called as he chased after him, apparently thinking this was a game. "You got a head start!"

* * *

"Alright, so do you remember where the library is?" Isaac asked as he and Mica went down the stairs. Zefyre had spotted a couple of other charmander out the window and had wanted to go meet them while Horatio had opted to stick with his trainer.

"Nope," Mica replied cheerily. "But I saw the ocean out of the dorm window; do you mind if I go drop Biv off there first? I think she'd like the water."

"Uh, no problem. The library is just right here," Isaac said, pointing to a door to the right of the stairs they had just descended. "I'll meet you in here then."

"Great! See you in a few," Mica said, cheerily bouncing off (at a walking pace) towards the exit. She paused by a classroom, peaking in to see her father writing something on the blackboard. She stepped outside and made her way over to the ocean side, pulling out her pokegear as she did so.

_Being the sneaky person that I am, I actually have an ulterior motive for leaving_, she thought deviously, flipping through her (select few) numbers until she found Lucian's. _I haven't talked to him in ages. Best to do it in the safety of the dock. Behind the big stone thingy_. As she passed by, she took a glance at said stone statue thingy. Across the bottom various rangers had written things like 'I pledge to protect even the weakest of pokemon' and 'I work for the smiles of pokemon and people'.

_Is this a ranger's version of vandalism?_ Mica wondered.

Releasing Biv into the shallow water and plunking at the edge of the dock, out of view from the school, Mica quickly dialled Lucian's number. While it was ringing, Horatio slowly tiptoed over to where she was, careful not to touch the water anywhere. Lucian picked up after the third ring.

"Hello?"

"Roger," Mica whispered into the makeshift cell phone. "The bird has migrated south. Copy?"

"Mica?" Lucian asked, fairly certain that he recognized her voice, even at a whisper. And besides, he didn't know anyone else who would pretend to be a spy over pokegear.

"Actually, you're supposed to say 'roger' back. But that's okay." She smiled, pleased to hear a familiar voice. "Also, _Lucian_!" She shouted into the pokegear, abandoning her spy act. "Have you missed me?"

"Holy! Yes, Mica. I've missed you. Listen, are you okay?" He asked, pleased and alarmed at the same time to hear from her. Mica sighed a little.

"Yeah, I'm okay. I kind of have to be for my pokemon, you know?" She said, scratching Horatio's ears. "My father is working at the Ranger Academy- for some bizarre reason- so that's where I'm staying. The people here are nice, but still…I'd rather be in Johto."

"Is he bothering you?" Lucian asked, concerned.

"Well, he has classes to teach, so I haven't seen him much since we got here. But just knowing that I'm stuck with him again, and that I can't battle here…"

"I get it," Lucian said softly. "But at least you'll be able to leave legally in a little under a year," he coaxed. Mica snorted slightly.

"Yeah, because he'll let me leave just because of my birthday."

"Listen, if it comes down to it, I'll come get you myself, okay? I'd do it now, but your father would know it was me, so he'd be able to lay kidnapping charges against me."

"Huh. Can't have that…but still, thanks Lucian. That means a lot." Mica said softly, comforted by the fact that she had someone who cared that much for her. At that point, however, Horatio decided to speak up and join in on the conversation.

"_Tell him I say hi! Tell him I say hi!_" He said excitedly, stretching out towards the pokegear and accidentally clawing at Mica's neck.

"Ow. Ow! Hey, get off me! Horatio of the horrible timing says hi, by the way."

_At least she still has friends with her_, Lucian thought chuckling softly. "Tell him I say hi back."

"Lucian says hi, okay Horatio?" Mica said to the smiling fire type.

"_Yay for technology!_" He cheered.

"Anyway, I'm actually supposedly just dropping Biv off in the water, so I should probably go. How often can I call you though?"

"Whenever you like. As long as I'm not battling I'll answer, okay?"

"What if you're in coitus?"

"I don't think we have to worry about that," he said dryly. Mica smiled a bit.

"Aw, poor Lucian. Anyway, thanks a lot. Really. I'll talk to you later."

"It's no problem at all. Goodbye, Mica."

"Over and out." She finished, ending the call. "How's the water Biv?" She asked her half submerged pokemon.

"…_should be more salty_," Biv replied mildly.

"But it's the ocean! I thought it'd be salty enough." She cried indignantly.

"_Mm, it's…different._"

"…Sorry hun, this is going to have to do." Mica gave her a parting pat, moved Horatio off her lap, and got up and turned around to leave.

And nearly walked directly into a tall man in a dark green uniform who was standing directly behind her.

* * *

Silver was cussing. Things were just getting worse and worse for him. He had gotten lost in the woods, set said woods on fire, gotten rescued by a teenager with the mentality of a toddler and was now standing in front of a pokemon centre when he wanted to be standing in front of a gym. Apparently, when you go north in Mahogany town, it takes you to a pokemon centre. And he was so sure he was heading in the direction of the gym too. Just another mistake to add to his bad day.

"_Bastards!_" Silver yelled, at nobody in particular.

"You know, you really should tone down the swearing." Ben's voice came from behind Silver, and he turned to see Ben looking up from the trash can he had dumped Pichu's ukulele in. Both ranger and partner were actually going through trash to get it back.

"Don't tell me what to do," Silver snarled. "And when I get out of here, you'd better be gone." He threatened before walking into the centre.

_Might as well heal my pokemon while I'm here, I guess._

Seeing as Silver only had three pokemon, and none of them were particularly injured, getting them into perfect health only took a couple of minutes. He left the pokecentre fully expecting the childish ranger to have found his ukulele and left. However, when he got back outside it was to find Ben still standing beside the garbage can, with his partner having retrieved its instrument. Silver huffed in annoyance and walked over, intent on scaring the boy off somehow. However, when he got to him Silver noticed that instead of the childish grin Ben had worn throughout his entire encounter with the boy, the pokemon ranger was glaring at a grungy looking house with more intensity than Silver thought the boy was capable of. It still didn't amount to much, especially on Ben's boyish face, but it did surprised Silver a bit.

"Hmph. What's gotten into you?"

"I just saw a couple of men walk in there…wearing a Team Rocket uniforms and being generally creepy looking!" The boy brazened, in a way that would have been far more impressive had his voice not cracked on the word 'team'.

"Team Rocket?" _I've got more than one bone to pick with them_, Silver thought, looking back at the 'house'.

"Yes. Those no-good low lives are always harming pokemon and the environment, and it's my job as a pokemon ranger to halt their nefarious deeds!"

"Pichu!" Pichu didn't strum on his ukulele this time- much to Silver's relief- but instead brandished it above his head like some oddly proportioned sword. After a second Silver realized that it was imitating the way Ben was posing with his styler.

"…True enough, but I highly doubt you have the strength to take down Team Rocket. Leave the pounding to me, wimp," Silver told him before haughtily walking off towards the house. He heard Ben behind him calling the Union and telling them that he was taking on a mission. Silver sighed as the boy caught up to him and they approached the threshold of the building.

_Guess I didn't really expect the idiot to give up that easy._

"All right then partner. We'll tackle this together and clear this mission!" It took Silver a couple of seconds to realize that Ben was referring to him when he said 'partner'.

"I'm not your partner, you dumbass! You're just an annoying twit who decided to follow me around."

"Well, I guess we can't be partners if I don't know your name."

"…Silver."

"All right then Silver. Let's go!" And the boy promptly charged towards the building, with Silver following in his wake and Pichu on his shoulder.

_I really should have caught that ferry to Olivine…_

* * *

"Heh heh heh," the man laughed sinisterly, leering at Mica. "Hello there, multi-eyed one."

Mica nervously took a step back. "Multi-eyed?" _But I have the normal amount of eyes!_

"Er, I meant multicoloured," the man said, dropping some of his mysterious aura. "But that is unimportant. You are supposed to be at the school, yes?"

_Crap, is this guy gonna get me in trouble?_ "Mmhmm," she replied, looking down to Horatio for support, thinking that he could spring into action and unleash a fiery assault on the man if she needed to make a getaway. He simply looked at her and cocked his head to the side, looking completely unready to unleash any sort of fiery assault.

"Heh heh heh, that's what I thought."

"Um, who are you?" Mica asked, a little freaked out by this point.

"Me?" _Hey, she's actually falling for this!_ The man thought to himself._ Damn, I should have caught her in a room where I could turn out the lights or something. That would freak her out even more!_ "During the day; I am the master of gym class and styler practices! Mr. Kaplan!"

"Wait, you mean you're a teacher here?"

"And during the night," the man continued, ignoring Mica, "I am…the leader of the inscrutable Team School!" Mr. Kaplan finished with a flourish, adding in a maniacal laugh for good measure.

"…Well, it's day time. Shouldn't you be in class?" _So they hired this whack job and my father. Is being insane a requirement for working here?_

"Oh, I'm on my prep period," he said, returning to sanity with such abruptness that it startled Mica slightly. "But that is also unimportant! What is important is that you, and your partner-" he pointed at Horatio, who again tilted his head to the side and pointed at his chest- "have the stealth and cunning necessary to rise through the ranks of Team School!"

"Huh? Yu want us to join?" _Well, this could prove to be very fun indeed!_ "Well…what are Team School's objectives? I can't very well join if I don't agree with their philosophies." Mica pulled on a thinking face, humouring the man.

"Our objectives? Oh, they are…um…to rule the school, and cause mischief for whoever stands in our way!"

Mica suddenly saw the man in a new light. _Mr. Kaplan, I think we can be friends_. "What a foolproof plan!" She declared, pointing her finger to the sky. "Where do I sign up?"

"You already have!" Mr. Kaplan told her, delighted to have his first recruit. _I knew I could get this thing off the ground if Ms. Clair stayed out of my way!_ "Your first mission is to…recruit other members! Back to the school with you."

"Yes sir!" Mica saluted at the man and began jogging back to the school, Horatio following behind her. She slowed to a walk when she reached the school and slowly opened the creaky front door. She and Horatio snuck their way into the library and, spotting Isaac at the back, made their way over to him.

"What took you so long?" Isaac asked, casting an unsure look at Horatio. "And I don't think pokemon are allowed in the library."

"Sure they are, you just made that rule up." She plopped down beside him, pulling the text book he brought down closer to her. "And I only just met the coolest most insane teacher ever."

"Mr. Kaplan?" Isaac guessed.

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"He's the only insane teacher here. Did he try to recruit you to Team School?"

"He _did_ recruit me to Team School. I am now a member. Also, I think Father's pretty insane too. Just not in a fun way."

"Hm, you're not the first person to say that. I've never seen that side of him though. He may be strict, but he's also sincere, right?"

Mica gave him a look, but was saved from answering by Horatio flopping onto the table and rolling into a ball, looking at Mica with pitiful eyes.

"Hm? What's the matter buddy?" She asked.

"_My stomach hurts!_"

"That's because you ate my greasy food, you fatty! No sympathy!"

"_Jerk!_"

"Glutton."

"_Loser_."

"Fool."

"_Loser pants Mcfaceface!_"

Mica gasped. "You go too far!"

"Wait, wait, wait. Can you understand what he's saying?" Isaac asked, who had been watching the exchange with a puzzled expression.

"Course! He's my pokemon, after all," Mica answered, pulling Horatio closer. The quilava snapped at her irritably when the movement stretched his aching stomach out.

"So can all trainers understand their pokemon?" Isaac asked, impressed.

"Uh, good question. Well put. Umm…I assume so? I mean, I can understand my guys because I'm friends with them. But now that I think about it, I've never really heard of other trainers being able to do that. I'll ask Lucian about it."

"Oh. Who's Lucian?"

"An…experienced friend of mine," she said. "Don't tell my father though; he doesn't like Lucian." She added as an afterthought.

"Huh. Um, okay. I'm not the best liar though. But can I ask you something?"

"Shoot."

"Well, I have a few questions about the training culture. To start, I was wondering what the goal of going on a journey is."

"Oh. That's all to do with the League…" Mica began explaining the various concepts of travelling around a region to challenge gyms to be able to challenge the regional League's tournament to be able to challenge the Elite Four to be able to challenge the Champion. The discussion took the two of them right through first period, and at the beginning of second period Kate, Kellyn and Keith walked into the library and spotted them at the back. They started walking over to them, chatting happily. Keith was, for reasons unknown to Mica, carrying a pillow with him.

"Hey there Mica!" Kate greeted, pulling up a chair beside her. "Getting acquainted with the school's boy genius?"

"And Kincaid's favourite student," Kellyn added for good measure.

"Yeah, Isaac's…very nice," she said, unable to think up a better compliment when they had already outlined the boy's intelligence. "Don't you have class though?"

"Nah, it's study period for us," Kate told her.

"Or nap time." Keith added, plopping his pillow down on the table and resting his head on it.

"That's distasteful." Isaac looked a little offended at Keith's use of the library. "But did you three know that at least some trainers can understand their pokemon's language?"

Kate looked a little surprised at this news, but Kellyn simply nodded a bit. "I can assume. There was an article in issue 57 of the _Almia Times_ that mentioned that good rangers can understand their partners."

"Cool stuff! I hope I get that good too. Hey, I guess that means you're a good trainer then, Mica," Kate said, smiling at the trainer.

"Yes, because, as you can see, my pokemon are the picture of health." Horatio was still curled up into a little ball on the table, clutching his rebelling stomach. "He ate too much greasy food, and now he's sick." She explained to the rangers.

"Aw, poor guy." Kate reached out and stroked Horatio's head, to no response from the fire pokemon.

"So what are your plans for getting back to training anyway?" Kellyn asked. "Since I assume you don't plan on staying with your father."

"The only thing I can think of is to wait until I'm eighteen and make my permanent getaway then." She sighed slightly. "It's going to be a tedious wait…"

At this Kellyn and Kate shared a Look. Nodding seriously, Kellyn stood up and took on a bit of a pose. Kate too got up, after poking Keith and whispering "ginger, get up. We're about to do something dramatic". Keith gave a muffled grunt and joined his friends. Isaac cradled his face in his hands, having a vague idea of the three's intention. Mica was just puzzled.

"Though we may graduate in naught but a fortnight," Kellyn began, his voice every bit as serious as Mica had ever heard him, "we three swear to serve you to the best of our abilities."

"Through mischief and pranks, we shall war on the evils of rules and…Mr. Kincaid and ensure that your time here is, at the very least, not tedious." Kate joined in, trying to make her voice reach the same level of seriousness, and not quite succeeding.

"Oy vey!" Keith finished.

"_Oy vey indeed_," Horatio mumbled.

* * *

**A/N Yup…yup yup! We all love fillers, oui? Oui! But no worries, because from this point on, dear readers, you may expect an update every Sunday/Mondayish! Also, next chapter will probably focus mostly on Ben and Silver's escapade through the Team Rocket hideout. Haha, screw Lance, we have Ben! Aw, how I love writing Ben and Silver's interactions…:D**

**Did YOU find the Black Adventures reference?**


	14. New Bonds

**A/N I updated on time! I updated on time! Confetti for me, please. *confetti falls*. MARLINMARLEN! Way to go! You got the Black Adventures reference. Zefyre, do your duty.**

***Zefyre waddles up and hugs MarlinMarlen, looking absolutely adorable (apart from the cut)* Daww, they're buddies now. Also, for those readers who didn't get it, tell them what the reference was Horatio.**

**Horatio: YAY FOR TECHNOLOGY!**

**Mwahaha, Pod/Chili FTW.**

**Whoa…I'm in a weird mood…the perfect condition for writing a chapter!**

Ben charged forward, dramatically kicking the door open and standing with his hands on his hips slightly inside the building. Pichu mimicked his pose in mini by his side, and Silver leaned haughtily against the doorframe, scowling. Needless to say, it took the two men inside a few seconds to react to this bizarre development. Really, how often is it that a ranger, an electric rat, and an arrogant red head burst into a store, even in the pokemon world?

"What the hell are you doing?" One of the men, the burlier one, finally shouted. "You broke our friggin' door you punks!"

"I'm pokemon ranger Ben, trained in the Boyleland ranger base, and graduated seventh in my class at the Ranger Academy. This is my partner Pichu!"

"Pi!" _Twang_.

_Idiot. How about you tell them your PIN number too?_ Silver thought, not moving from the doorway.

"We're here to put a stop to your nefarious deeds, _Team Rocket_," he declared, pointing at the men. "Oh, and this is Silver." He added as an afterthought, motioning to the teen in the doorway. Silver got the feeling that he had delivered this speech many times before, and only added Silver in as an afterthought at the end.

The other man, who was shorter and had greasy hair and bags under his eyes, walked forward. "Pokemon ranger, eh?" He wheezed, sizing up Ben and completely ignoring Silver, much to the trainer's annoyance. "Well, you certainly jump to some wild conclusions. This is just your average shop selling average things to average people. How about you go prance around in the forest like you're supposed to."

"Smarmy dolt," Silver muttered, shrugging away from the doorframe and preparing a pokeball. Apparently, these guys weren't going to give up information on Team Rocket with Ben's interrogation approach.

"Watch who you're talking to, punk!" The burlier man snarled, advancing towards Silver.

"Croconaw, use Ice Fang on that pathetic wimp," Silver commanded, throwing out Croconaw's pokeball. The bipedal crocodile appeared, snarling something in its own language and charging the man. He crunched his ice cold jaws into the man's sides, causing bits of it to freeze where the skin broke. The man yelled and frantically began trying to pry the croconaw off, to no avail. Eventually though, Croconaw apparently got bored of holding this pose and threw the man into the wall, where he slumped over, unconscious. The shorter man's eyes widened.

"Holy mother of Darkrai! Cool your jets, kid. We're not even part of Team Rocket, we're just guarding the entrance, I swear!"

"Idiot! It doesn't matter if you're not officially part of them when you act exactly like them. Acting like you're tough when you think you have the upper hand and then showing what a coward you really are when you realize you don't. You're pathetic! I hate that kind of _weakness_!" Silver's temper, which seemed to be a forever short one, lashed out against the man, and he cowered away from the advancing boy and his croconaw. "Where's the entrance?" Croconaw growled to make sure the man understood the threat behind his trainer's shout.

The man took one look at Croconaw's rows of pointed, glistening teeth and promptly pointed at an antique looking cabinet.

"The stairs are behind there!"

Ben, who had maintained a look of mild surprise during Silver's tantrum (though he held his pose the entire time too), chose this moment to speak up.

"Oh! The cabinet looks mighty heavy. I guess we'll have to do a target clear on-"

"Croconaw. Deal with it." Silver cut him off. The pokemon nodded and waddled over to the cabinet. Giving it a little push he managed to move it about an inch, revealing a sliver of the entranceway on the floor. With a grunt and a mighty shove, the cabinet slid across the floor and smacked into the wall.

"Oh…yeah! That works too. Yay Croconaw!" Ben cheered for the little crocodile, who simply stared at him then turned away, sniffing at the staircase that had been revealed in the floor.

_What a strange boy_, Croconaw thought to himself as the two approached the opening. _Weird though how Master Silver hasn't beaten him to a pulp yet…in fact, he's being oddly tolerant towards the boy. I wonder why…_

"C'mon. Let's go. Croconaw, stay on your guard. Ben, stay _out_ of my way."

"_There's a lot of different people smells down there…it must be very inhabited_," Croconaw told him, despite the fact that he knew Silver couldn't understand him. It was his theory that if he spoke to him enough, his trainer would eventually come to understand his language. He knew it was possible, since that cyndaquil back at the place made of white boxes had told him that his trainer knew his words. Croconaw would just have to be patient with his trainer, that's all.

The stairs were steep, but didn't go down very far. The smell of different people grew stronger in Croconaw's nose as they descended, and Ben was rambling on about how to properly do a mission. Apparently, ranger missions generally didn't involve violence. Croconaw couldn't help but scoff at the boy's ignorance.

"_What's so funny?_" The Pichu that kept making annoying sounds asked, sounding somewhat offended.

"_Your trainer_." Croconaw motioned at the boy, who was still rambling away to Silver. Croconaw's trainer was trying, trying very hard, to ignore Ben, but it was easy to see from the growing scowl on Silver's face that he would not be able to ignore him for much longer. "_Telling Silver to be non-violent is like telling a skitty not to chase moving things. It's just something he has to do._"

"_Hm. Well, know what I think?_" Pichu asked in a singsong voice.

"_What do you think?_" Croconaw played along with the cutsie act- he was far more patient than his trainer.

"_I think that Silver just needs to…Try~ Try a little harder~ To~ Be~ Calm_," The Pichu had turned his speech into a song, and began dancing around and playing his ukulele. They had reached the bottom of the stairs by now, and were at the beginning of a dim, grey hall.

"Yeah! See, that's the spirit! Spreading happiness through music- that's Pichu's unique way of spreading joy and keeping balance. That way people and pokemon can live together and work in harmony," Ben exclaimed, pointing at his partner as he did so.

"Idiot! People and pokemon can't 'work in harmony'. And it's impossible to even have any notion of balance. Everyone works towards whatever makes _them_ feel good, and if that means screwing over someone else than so be it! The people who achieve real strength are the ones that know how to control people."

"That's not true! If you think like that, you'll never be in harmony with your surroundings. You'll never be peaceful." Finally, Ben seemed to be taking what Silver said seriously, instead of just shrugging it off. Perhaps it wax the display of violence from earlier that tipped off the ranger that he was not joking when he said such things.

"Harmony doesn't exist!" The bad day had come crashing down on Silver full force at that instant, and he lashed out at the nearest available target, trying to cool the rage that had started burning even brighter inside him the instant that tree had caught fire. "Peace doesn't exist! Everything we do is motivated by greed and hate! That's humanity's motivation."

"Plato once said-"

"Plato was an idiot! Quit trying to convince yourself otherwise."

"Well, what about me?" Ben asked, a little nervous about contradicting the boy with rage in his eyes.

"What about you?"

"I've devoted my life to helping people. I gave up on having any sort of life for being a pokemon ranger. To help people and pokemon; that's what I do." Ben had gained some confidence as he said the last line. It was what he told himself whenever he felt that he wasn't strong enough to do what he had to do.

"Pichu!" His partner backed him up, standing at Ben's side. Croconaw too, moved to Ben's side, but he felt that this didn't mean nearly as much to Silver as it did to Ben.

Silver glared at Ben for a little bit, apparently forming an answer in his mind. "You do what you do…" he said slowly, not wanting to use his generic 'because you're an idiot' reason. "Because it makes _you_ feel good. 'Helping people' satisfies something inside you, which means you're not doing it for other people, you're doing it for yourself. You're still being selfish, it just so happens that your version of selfish involved making life better for some people. But you still make life worse for some people."

"Huh?"

"If you helped everyone, than you would be helping Team Rocket too. Though they're scum, so I guess that's how you justify it."

"Yup, that's my reasoning!" Ben exclaimed. Pichu seemed pleased too.

_Twang_.

"Piss off!" Silver, who apparently had had enough of being mature, grabbed Pichu's ukulele- again- and, seeing no place to dump it, threw it down the hall, past a persian statue. Pichu quickly darted down the hall to get it. As it passed the statue, the eyes of the stone cat began to glow, and sounds of footsteps could be heard down the hall. A few seconds later, a Team Rocket grunt came across a very alarmed looking Silver and Ben.

"Hey! Intruders! I thought I heard yelling!"

* * *

"…You guys are cool beans! What kind of mischief are we talking here?" Mica asked, ecstatic that she had found at least three kids to help break the boredom.

The three held their pose, apparently unsure of how to answer the question. "The best kind!" Keith finally brazened, pumping the fist that wasn't still gripping his pillow in the air.

"Awesome!" An idea struck Mica. "And we shall execute all acts of mischief in the name of Team School, right?"

"Isn't that the name of the… thing… that Mr. Kaplan scares students with?" Kate asked, remembering back to the day she had passed the entrance exam (capturing a pikachu). Mr. Kaplan had instantly turned the lights off and told her that she had joined a criminal syndicate, which scared the crap out of Kate. At least, until Ms. April had chastised him.

"Yes ma'am. I joined today."

"You joined a fake syndicate made by an insane teacher?" Kellyn asked, looking sceptical.

"I didn't know you could actually join that thing! C'mon, let's go sign up now." Kate grabbed the other two boys and bolted towards the doors, with Mica carrying Horatio in her wake. They were halfway to the door that led outside before Kincaid poked his head out of his classroom door.

"Hey! No running in the halls," he snapped. Glancing over the three troublemakers, he caught sight of his daughter among them.

_Figures! She would instantly make friends with the three worst students in the school_, he thought, fuming as he glared at Mica. She smiled weakly, all too familiar with the look he was giving her.

"Mica. We'll talk later. And you're not allowed to have non school sanctioned in here." And with that he slammed his door shut and, presumably, went back to teaching his class. The four students were silent for a few seconds. Mica returned Horatio to his pokeball (which seemed somewhat pointless, since they were about ten feet from the door).

"…Sorry Mica," Kate mumbled, feeling guilty about getting the girl in trouble.

"Oh, don't worry about it," she said mildly, waving off the girl's apology. "I'd be getting a talking to later regardless. Anyway…to Mr. Kaplan?"

"At a respectable walking pace, of course." Kellyn responded, walking off at an exaggerated slow and quiet pace. Keith snorted, and the four of them made their way outside.

The weather was nice, and the ocean was sparkling off to their left. Mica released a disgruntled Horatio onto the ground beside her as they walked. Though Mica knew Mr. Kaplan would be ecstatic at her already having found more recruits, she also wanted to go check on Biv.

"Hmm, you guys go sign up. I'm gonna go check on Biv," she said, turning towards the dock.

"That's your clampearl, right?" Kellyn asked.

"Yup. I let her out in the ocean so she could get some fresh…water. Or salty water, I guess."

"…I've never properly met a clampearl before. Or any pokemon form the ocean, really. Do you mind if I tag along?" he asked, earning a pout from Kate and a 'hey man!' from Keith. "You guys sign up for me, okay?" he directed at his friends.

"Yeah, you can tag along." Mica answered, a little surprised.

_Even though you could meet her anytime you like…_ she thought.

"Thanks." Mica and Kellyn made their way towards the dock, leaving Keith and Kate to deal with Mr. Kaplan on their own. Kellyn wasn't much of a talker, and the walk was pretty quiet. Mica wasn't sure whether she was comfortable with the silence or not.

They reached the big statue thing that Mica had used to block herself from view from the school. Something about it made Kellyn smile, and Mica sent him a questioning look.

"Oh, this is the Pledge Stone. It's where the students come to make their promise to be the best at whatever it is they plan to do. I made mine with Keith, Kate and Rhythmi."

"Oh." Was Mica's only response. It looked kind of plain to her. She pointed at the writing at the base of the statue. "So what's with the d- the writing at the bottom?" She had almost called it 'dorky vandalism' before she realized it might offend Kellyn.

"Oh, if you graduate at the top of your class you get to write your promise there."

"Cool…" Mica muttered distractedly as she wandered over to the side of the dock. Horatio stuck his tongue out at her and refused to step onto the wooden platform. Bending over, she could see her pokemon nestled in the sand at the bottom. She had slipped down a few feet from where Mica had placed her, and so was completely submerged, though not out of reach of a pokeball's beam. "Ah. There she is. Safe and sound."

Kellyn wandered over to where Mica was and bent down beside her, spotting the blue oyster at the bottom. It wasn't moving, nor was it giving any other indication that it was 'safe and sound' as far as Kellyn could see.

"How can you tell?" He asked, eyebrows furrowing together in confusion. He would need to know how to tell a water pokemon's health if he ever wanted to be a good ranger. Was there something about it in one of the issues of the _Almia Times_…

"Like this," Mica declared. She promptly started beating the surface of the water, causing large splashed that soaked the two of them. "Hey Biv! You okay down there?" She yelled at the top of her voice. Biv responded by opening her shell and firing a Water Gun at her trainer's face, which had enough force to knock her off the other side of the dock, toppling her into the water. The water wasn't deep where she landed, and she simply stood up and leaned her arms against the dock, smiling at an alarmed Kellyn. "See? Safe and sound!"

"…Er, isn't there a better way to check?" _Girl, your father's going to kill you if he catches you walking through the school dripping water everywhere._

"Probably. Swim?"

"Pass."

"Wrong answer!" And with that, she hopped back onto the deck and tackled a very surprised Kellyn in the water.

"Aww! Look Kate, they're _flirting_." Keith and Kate had walked over just in time to see Mica tackle their friend off the side of the dock.

"Whoo! Swim time!" Kate cheered, and did a cannonball off the end of the dock, into the deeper water.

"Kate! What are you doing! We have a class after this." Kellyn was pulling himself back onto the dock while Mica laughed and swam over into the deeper water.

"Yeah, and we also have more than one set of uniforms!" Keith exclaimed, rushing over and pushing his disgruntled friend back into the water before jumping in himself.

"Don't worry, we can say we were practicing our captures. Our sea captures!" Kate quickly pulled her school styler our of its designated pocket and began trying to capture Biv, who promptly fired a Water Gun at the oncoming capture disk. The disk, being designed for more simple captures, such as pichu or bidoof, promptly shattered at its first contact with an adequately powered attack. "Oops. Or not…"

"Well done Kate. Now you have a soaking wet uniform _and_ a broken styler to explain to Kincaid when you get caught."

"Silly Kellyn! I'll just tell him I was gaining experience."

"And he'll just tell you that you have detention."

"No, he can't. Because…I already have detention tonight!" She declared. Kellyn just shook his head and started back up to the school, intent on changing his uniform without attracting the notice of Kincaid. Horatio hissed at him as he went by.

"I don't think that grants you any kind of immunity, Kitty Kat," Keith said, slyly adding her nickname on at the end.

"That's not my name ginger!" Kate began dunking her friend underwater.

"Hey, he doesn't seem like much of a mischief-maker." Mica commented, referring to Kellyn.

"Oh, he is. Just not with little things like this. He thinks it's stupid getting in trouble for pointless things." Kate explained.

"Yeah, he's kind of an all-or-nothing kind of guy." Keith added, having escaped from Kate's dunking.

"…Hey guys?" Mica said after a few minutes.

"Yes'm?"

"This water is freaking freezing. Can we head up?"

"Oh, thank Arceus you said it first! I didn't want to appear unmanly in front of my women," Keith said, flipping his wet hair. Kate again dunked him under the water to prove her dominance while Mica ducked under the water to say a quick goodbye to Biv. The trio began making their way back up to the school, with Horatio following at a distance behind them.

Meanwhile, up at the school…

Kellyn opened the door as quietly as he could. Which wasn't very quietly, seeing how every door in the school creaked like it came from a haunted house. Kellyn cringed as the door practically screamed his entrance. However, no screaming teacher yet. He breathed a sigh of relief and started walking into the school. He closed the door behind him, it once again screamed into the eerily silent school. He looked at Kincaid's classroom door fearfully. Why, oh why did his class have to be right beside the door?

But…still no detention. He walked through the hall as quietly and responsibly as he could, water dripping off his school uniform as he went. He was in near the door... he was in front of the door…he was past the door! Feeling a sense of victory, his stride became more confident as he walked towards the stairs leading to the dorm rooms., still dripping water everywhere. Now it was just a matter of changing his uniform and-

"Mr. Hajime!" Kincaid's voice pierced the silence. Slowly, regretfully, Kellyn turned to see the strictest, most terrifying teacher in the school looking positively incensed at the sight of him. "You are dripping water everywhere. Have you no respect for school property? Did you not stop to think about water damage? About people slipping on the wet floor?"

_Crap…there goes tonight's freedom. Oh well, I tried._ "They won't slip unless they're running," he said mildly, trying to back away towards the stairs. It was almost worth sassing the teacher just to be able to visibly see the blood pressure rise in his face.

"Stop moving." Kellyn froze in his tracks. "Now, _explain yourself_."

_Honestly child, did you think it was a good day for a swim? The water must be freezing, have you no sense of self preservation?_

"…It seemed like a good day for a swim, sir." This surprised Kincaid, on more than one level.

…_I guess he doesn't have a sense of self preservation. _

"Well, since you're so fond of water, you will spend this evening scrubbing the basement. Understood?" Mr. Kincaid could see the huff of annoyance, but he could also see resignation on the boy's face. He felt a smirk form on his face at the expression.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, where are your clothes?"

"In my room. I was going to go change…"

"You were going to walk up the stairs and soak not only the wood floors but the carpet in the dorms as well? Oh no. You will stay here while I go fetch a fresh uniform from the laundry room, since students aren't allowed there." He sniffed a little at the last statement. "Not that that means much to a student like you. If I come back and you are not exactly where you are now, it will be a week's worth of detention."

"Yes, sir." _It's going to take him at least five minutes to get an entire outfit out of the drier_, Kellyn thought as Mr. Kincaid strode off. He looked at the clock hanging on the wall. _And the bell will ring in three minutes. Meaning I will be standing here, soaking wet, while the students all rush around me. Great._

Kellyn would have liked to move, but he knew that Mr. Kincaid wasn't joking when he said exactly that spot. He would be liable for detention if he moved even to the side to get out of the way of the stampeding students.

_Creak…_

"Holy, that door is _loud_." Kellyn heard Mica's voice. Looking to his right, he saw his two old friends and his one new one coming through the door.

"Hush, Kincaid will hear."

"No, he won't." Kellyn sighed. "He caught me, and I'm not allowed to go to the dorm. He's in the laundry room getting me a new uniform now. You guys have great timing."

"Ha, so do you have detention with me tonight?" Kate asked, not the least bit concerned at her friend's plight.

"Are you scrubbing the basement?"

"Nope."

"Then no."

"Oh, okay then. Well…see ya!" Kate waved cheerily as she and the other two made their way towards the stairs.

"Have fun scrubbing floors while I get to know our new _lady_ friend," Keith said, wiggling his eyebrows and slinging an arm around Mica. For some reason, the sight sent a pang of jealousy through Kellyn.

"You know, I could very easily tell him who forced me into the water." He snapped.

"Aw, you won't tell on _me_ though, would you?" Mica asked, trying her best to make her eyes wide and innocent.

_Huh…she does have nice eyes_, Kellyn thought. Kincaid's hard brown ones flashed into his memory. _Ugh…must have came from her mother_.

"…No…" he grunted. Mica smiled, and the three made their way towards the stairs, leaving poor Kellyn to be trampled by students and then snapped at by Kincaid.

"This isn't fair…I didn't even want to swim!" he yelled after them. Kate flashed a wave without looking back, and then the bell rang, and they were lost in a sea of students in motion.

_This is going to make me late for my next class too_, Kellyn realized as he got yelled at by students who inadvertently walked into his soaking wet form. His stomach sank when he realized his next class was with Kincaid, and chances were, he'd get another detention for being late.

**Meh. Boring chapter, huh? But ohhh, what are Silver and Ben up to? Tune in next Sunday/Monday to find out!**

**Mmm, didn't edit this particularly closely…please point out any errors so I can fix 'em!**

**Oh, and if you BEG in a very LENGTHY review, I might tell you.**


	15. Reminders

**A/N I have been panicking these past few days. I realized that the way I depicted Kellyn made Mica look like a Sue. This will be rectified. In this chapter. Right now. Also…I don't think Kellyn came off quite the way I wanted him to. At all, in fact. **

* * *

"Hmph. That was pathetic. Now." Silver took a menacing step towards the Team Rocket grunt whose pokemon Croconaw had just finished beating. Ben and Pichu stood awkwardly behind him, not entirely sure what exactly it was they should be doing. "How about you tell us what the hell tipped you off to our presence before you meet the same end as your disgustingly weak pokemon?" Croconaw growled at the retreating man, showing off his rows of pointed teeth.

The man looked fearfully at Croconaw, but had enough of a spine to refuse to answer Silver.

"Tch. Stupid and weak. Use Ice Fang, Croconaw." Coating his teeth in crackling ice, Croconaw lunged at the man, who screamed and tried to block Croconaw with his arm. Croconaw simply clamped down on the arm offered to him, shaking and dragging them man down. The unnamed Rocket grunt tried getting loose; he was struggling enough to shake Croconaw around on the ground. Eventually, Croconaw grew sick of this and launched his fist into the side of the man's head, just like he'd seen his trainer do so many times before. However, Croconaw was many times stronger than Silver, and so the force of his punch knocked the man out cold. Croconaw let go of his arm and sniffed at his unconscious body. Than bit it again.

"You stupid pokemon! Now how are we going to get information?" Croconaw let go of the man and looked up at his trainer, trying to communicate that he hadn't meant to knock him out. Of course, this went completely unnoticed by Silver, who grabbed Croconaw's pokeball and was about to suck him back in.

"Hey, wait a minute." Ben interrupted. "Croconaw was being shaken around a lot there; he was trying to make it stop. No need for punishment!"

Croconaw looked at the ranger, pleased that he had stuck up for him. It wasn't something Croconaw was used to. "_Thanks_," he muttered, aware that Ben couldn't understand him but wanting to relay his feelings anyway.

"_You're welcome!_" Pichu responded, grinning broadly at the pokemon.

"Hmph, whatever," Silver said, pocketing Croconaw's pokeball. "A screw up is a screw up. Pokemon are too stupid to understand punishment anyway."

"What? No they aren't! Pokemon are smarter than a lot of humans, and more honest too. If you tried to understand your pokemon better you'd find that out for yourself."

"…I'm sick of arguing with you. You're just another hopeless soft hearted weakling." _So why doesn't he annoy me as much as he should?_ Silver wondered. It was true; even though he had hated Ben when he first met him, even though he still annoyed Silver a bit with his lovey-dovey nonsense, and even though Ben pretty much embodied everything that Silver despised, his weak way of thinking didn't ignite the same hatred that most other trainers managed to make him feel.

"Wee, go Pichu go!" Ben cheered as Pichu started up another round of ukulele playing.

_No…I most definitely hate this kid_, Silver revised, mentally slapping himself for allowing himself to think even for a moment that he might not hate Ben with every fibre of his being. "Hey, idiot! What do you plan on doing with this trap?"

"You should have just left that to me at from the start!" Ben declared. "You know, they don't just teach us how to draw circles at Ranger Academy; we learn all about trap mechanics and technology and stuff. Along with nature science, of course." As he talked, Ben walked over to the persian statue and began looking behind it, around it, and surprised Silver when he yanked off a part of the back and examined the inside of it.

"They teach technology to rangers?" Silver asked, not really seeing the connection.

"Well, in first year you have to learn the basics of all three primary jobs related to being a ranger." He stopped there and hummed to himself as he fiddled around with the statue.

"You assume I know what they are." Silver pointed out eventually. Ben just nodded cheerily and continued humming.

_Do I have to spell it out for you?_ Silver thought.

"I don't know what the professions are, you idiot! Do you not understand subtext?"

"Oh, haha, nope. Summer's always complaining about that. She's-"

"I don't care who she is!"

"Oh, okay. Well, anyway, the three jobs are rangers, operators, and mechanics. I only took basic mechanics, but it's enough for this." Silver 'humphed' and crossed his arms to watch. On the ground, the unconscious Rocket grunt moaned and, since they apparently didn't need his information anymore, Silver kicked him in the face. This went unnoticed by Ben, but Pichu glared at Silver, disliking the display of violence. "Aha," Ben said after a few more seconds. "I've got it disabled. See?" He walked back and forth in front of the statue to display its non-functionality.

"Hm. Guess you're not completely useless. Come on." Silver walked forward, assuming the lead as they walked down the hallway.

"Oh, hey wait." Silver paused slightly as Ben caught up to him. "I think, since you don't know as much as me about traps and stuff…and since there's probably more of them…maybe I should go first? So that we don't accidently walk into another one." Ben, of course, was completely oblivious to the glare that Silver sent him.

"You're not the leader in this, wimp," Silver snapped at him.

"But I know more! Come on, follow in my lead!" Ben happily began walking in front of Silver in what could only be described as a march. Pichu was following cheerily behind him, occasionally strumming on his ukulele. Silver and Croconaw fell in step behind them, Silver sulking and Croconaw simply trying not to be noticed- he wasn't sure if his trainer had actually forgiven and/or forgotten about him knocking out the grunt from earlier.

However, over the next fifteen minutes Silver's displeasure at being placed second had vanished, being replaced with a higher respect for the pokemon ranger than he would ever admit out loud. Ben was right, there were more traps, many of which were far more deadly than a motion-detecting persian statue (though there were many more of those). Ben and Silver were bombarded with exploding floors, metal spikes raining from the ceiling, ninja stars being launched from slots in the wall, and the like. All of which Ben managed to dismantle before any injury could come to any part of their little party.

"You know, this is oddly reminiscent of a ninja hideout." Ben commented idly, smartly prancing across a patch of floor with randomly exploding tiles before making it to the other side and disengaging the trap so Silver and the pokemon could cross.

"Hm." Was Silver's only response as he walked across the now-stable floor.

"Yeah, it has all the same traps- save for the persian statues- as we studied in school," he continued as he spotted another statue and walked over to turn it off.

"Hm."

"And, if it is designed like a ninja hideout," Ben continued, not reacting to Silver's apparent disinterest, "then we only have to worry about traps like these for the first segment."

"…The first segment?"

"Yeah, you see, ninja hideouts- well, the few that were found, that is- all followed the same theme. The first bit, called the Entrance Segment or the Trap Segment was filled with loads of traps and little to no humans, while the second bit, called the Ambush Segment, was where all the actual ninjas, or in this case, grunts would wait. The last bit was where the treasure or weapon or what-have-you would be. It was called The Heart." Ben paused, and then grinned broadly at Silver, who actually seemed interested in this. "And that's your ninja trivia for the day!"

"…So, there might be something Team Rocket is trying to protect at the end of this?" Silver asked, ignoring the last part of Ben's speech.

"If it follows the _ninja scheme_, then yes." There was a few seconds of silence, which Silver thought of as blissful moments. "That's a cool phrase, isn't it? Ninja scheme. It sounds so-"

"Shut up."

"Oh, look! Another trap." Ben skipped- he actually skipped- down towards a hallway that tried to impale him with raining spikes, all of which he expertly dodged. Silver watched, but he got the feeling that there was something off in the way Ben was moving.

_Wait…is he _dancing_? That weird kid has some strange walking habits_, Silver realized, watching with crossed arms as Ben happily jived away to his own beat while dodging metal spears of death. _Weird kid…_

"All clear!" Ben called to Silver, who continued on as if Ben had not just evaded death through dance right before his eyes. "And look- a door!" He said this as if it was the most exciting thing he had ever seen. "Maybe this is the end of the traps."

"Thank Mew," Silver grumbled. He pushed Ben aside and yanked the door open.

And nearly walked head on into a Team Rocket executive with mint green hair and wide, nasty eyes to match. Silver's own eyes narrowed.

"Proton."

* * *

"Ke-hel-lyn," Kate whined, drawing out Kellyn's name into three syllables. "I do not understand this. Help me."

Kellyn sighed as he looked up from his mechanic's class homework. He, Kate, Keith, Rhythmi and Mica were all sitting together in the dorm room trying to do their respective homework. While, that was what they had planned to be doing, anyway. Mica was chatting happily with Horatio and Zefyre while her book lay in front of her and Keith was busy flirting animatedly with Rhythmi, who was flirting back without shame, playing with her blond curls. "What homework are you doing Kate?"

"Law. The textbook questions on different defences lawyers use."

"Well, I'll help you with that if you help me with Mechanics," Kellyn said, motioning to his own textbook. Kate was a whiz when it came to anything having to do with technology; she had already taken apart and modified her styler so much that it now more resembled a Union styler than a school styler.

"Dealio. Alright, question one!" He and Kate worked through her questions slowly, Kellyn making sure to explain the concept behind each kind of defence and its drawbacks so that she would understand. Then they moved to Kellyn's homework, this time with Kate going through the steps on how to get each answer. Throughout this entire time Keith and Rhythmi did not stop flirting with each, something that did not go unnoticed by Kellyn.

_Hm. I guess Rhythmi is going to be Keith's centennial girlfriend_, Kellyn thought sourly, glancing over at the two. _That would explain why she's been hanging out with us so much recently._

_He's constantly moving from one girlfriend to the next, without so much as a week in between the two. At this rate, he'll probably have dated every girl in the school by graduation- well, save for Kate._

Kellyn looked down at his homework, intending on switching to the next batch of questions but instead found himself contemplating his friendship with Keith.

_He teases me because I've never had a girlfriend. I know he's just joking, but it's really starting to get under my skin. I've started to feel this need to prove him wrong; to prove that I can get a girlfriend. But I can't date a girl that he's broken up with. That must be against some kind of guy code._

_But Mica_, he glanced over at the teen, who seemed to be scolding Horatio about something. He came back to the thought that he had started earlier. _Mica truly doesn't seem like the type to date Keith. I don't know why, I just get that feeling. But maybe _I_ can date her to prove myself to Keith and get him to finally _lay off.

…_It's not like it would be some big meaningful relationship. I wouldn't be using her, or leading her on or anything. Just something…little. They say that the best relationships are ones that are friends anyway._

Mica stood up suddenly, snapping Kellyn away from his non-homework thoughts.

"I," she declared dramatically, stretching and drawing everybody's attention, "am going to collect my clam. Hopefully without incident this time. I shall return with haste."

"You better, it'll be dark soon and you'll be in a lot of trouble if you're caught outside after dark." Rhythmi warned her.

"Sure, sure. I return with haste, remember Goldy Locks?" Mica waved her off as she started to make her way to the door. Kate sniggered a bit, and Rhythmi looked a bit miffed.

"…Goldy Locks?"

"It's a compliment Rhyth," Keith assured her, smiling. "It's because of your _gorgeous _blond curls." Keith began mussing Rhythmi's hair as he said this; Rhythmi giggled and pushed him away.

"I'll come with you," Kellyn said on a whim, getting up to follow Mica. "Since I didn't really get to see your clampearl that closely before." He added dryly in way of an explanation. Mica smiled and led the way out. Zefyre and Horatio both opted to stay inside.

"I forget- why did you want to see Biv in the first place?" Mica asked as they walked as quietly as they could down the squeaky stairs.

"I don't have much experience with ocean pokemon, and I'll need to get to know them in order to be a good ranger." Kellyn responded automatically.

"Ho hum. Fun, fun," Mica said, at loss for how else to respond. Kellyn looked frantically for a way to carry on the conversation.

"Er, if you don't mind me asking, how did you catch Biv? Seeing as they live at the bottom of the ocean."

"Oh," Mica brightened considerably at the mention of her pokemon. "Well, I actually just found her lying on the beach. At the shore kind of. I think she's had a trainer before me, but they abandoned her. Which is their mistake, since Biv is awesome!" They had walked across the foyer now, and were making their way across the grounds. Kellyn looked puzzled.

"But why would they abandon her? Is something wrong with her?" He instantly regretted his last question. No trainer would want to talk about their pokemon's bad points.

"…Well, kind of. She's really hard to raise, and her level hasn't gone up as much as it should have with all the training we've been doing." Mica furrowed her eyebrows, and wondered again why this was. "But she's still a really good member of our little team. She helped me tie our battle with Silver!"

"Silver?" _Like, the element? That was an odd statement…_

"Oh, that's the name of my rival. I had a battle with him before I came here. He's aiming to be, like, the strongest trainer _ever_. He's a pretty intense guy."

"It kind of sounds like you admire him," Kellyn said, wondering if this was all a wasted effort.

"Pffft, Silver? No way. He's too…" Mica thought of the way he was always trying to push his views on her, how he was always in her face. "Pushy. Hey Biv! Beddy boo time." They had reached the ocean by now, and Mica sucked Biv back into her pokeball. She minimized it, and was about to pocket it when a hoothoot flew by overhead with a loud 'hoot!' which caused Mica to jump slightly and drop the pokeball. She lunged forward to try and catch it, but the movement pulled on her stitches and caused her to grimace in pain, clutching her side. She had forgotten they were there, since she hadn't been doing much moving during her first day at the academy they hadn't been bothering her. But now, they angrily reminded her of their presence and the fact that she was still wounded.

"Hey, you okay?" Kellyn asked, realizing that she had pulled at her stitches. He handed her the pokeball she had dropped and waited for her response.

"Yeah, just…wasn't expecting that." The memory of what had happened in the forest floated into her mind, the image of Proton's wide green eyes floating in her mind's eye before she shoved the image away. "Thanks." She muttered, taking the pokeball.

_Damn it…I had done so well at forgetting that too. I almost forgot…it was Silver who saved me that night…_

"Um, feel free not to answer, but how did you get those stitches?" Kellyn asked. He remembered her showing Keith and Kate her injury and though he hadn't gone up to ogle like they had, he did notice that the cut on her side was actually rather short, only requiring a few stitches. But it seemed to have caused her a fair amount of pain just now, so it had to be deep, which gave Kellyn a fair idea of what it was.

"It was…a misadventure." Mica improvised; she didn't know Kellyn well enough to share this information with him.

"Okay. But you might want to be careful in how you move; your stitches might rip more easily now that you've disturbed them." he advised.

"…Do you actually know what you're talking about?" Mica asked.

"No…"

"Well, you do a good job of sounding like it." Mica smiled before executing a little pirouette, for some reason.

"Hey, that's not exactly being careful."

"Psh, I'm fine. They don't even hurt anymore." Lie. Her stitches were still twinging quite a bit, but she figured that if she behaved normally than he would forget about her injury and thus not question her on it. However, they had reached the school by now, so Mica had to quiet down anyway, much to Kellyn's relief.

They opened the creaky door- Kellyn again cursed its inconvenience- and began making their way over to the stairs. A bidoof watched them from them from against the wall, and went generally unnoticed by them. Until it decided to charge the two teens.

"Gah! Look out." Kellyn pushed Mica aside, whom the bidoof seemed to be aiming for. He turned to the pokemon and assessed the troublesome, loud thing before pulling out his styler.

_Probably just playing, but still_. It only took a couple loops to capture the bidoof, who happily rubbed against Kellyn's leg, completely calmed. He smiled and pat it for a second before turning to look at Mica.

"Hey, sorry about pu-"

Mica had gotten up from the fall she had taken when Kellyn pushed her. She looked rather pale, and her hand was holding her shirt against her side. Which, Kellyn noted with horror, was slowly seeping through with blood.

"I seem to have…ripped my stitches," Mica said mildly, before promptly passing out with a loud _thud_ onto the floor in front of a completely dumbfounded Kellyn.

* * *

**A/N Oh, ANOTHER Silver/Ben cliffy. And a semi Mica cliffy too. I'm so mean! I apologize if this chapter is a load of crap…I wasn't really **_**in the zone**_**. I am not at all pleased with it…**

**But did you like the ninja facts? Another little tibit about them…the hideout that Silver and Ben are in is one of the only two ninja hideouts ever discovered. So Ben's information isn't all that reliable, especially since those hideouts were obviously owned by fail ninjas. A real ninja's hideout would never be found.**

**Ohhhhh, who will be the 50th reviewer? Will it be YOU?**


	16. You did what?

**A/N Oh, hey, what's this? An update? Feel honoured, people. Why is it so late, you may ask, when I had set a very specific deadline? That is irrelevant to the story! Read on, little ones, read on.**

* * *

Silver could feel hatred boiling up inside him. This man, Mica's attacker, was standing in front of him. Smiling. Smiling like he hadn't almost killed the closest thing Silver had to a friend (or what he thought a friend was). Smiling like he wasn't one of the highest ranking members in Team Rocket. Smiling like he wasn't the scum of the universe.

"Well now." Proton drawled, flicking his eyes across the two teens in front of him. "If it isn't little Silver. Come to help look for daddy?"

"Hey! I'm pokemon ranger Ben, and-" Ben began. Silver sensed another idiotic comment about to come from the boy, so he decided it was best to stop him now.

"Shut up!" And the best way to stop someone is to shove them in the chest. Hard. Ben let out a little 'oof' as he fell to the ground. Proton was laughing, and would probably have made another comment had Silver not wheeled around and punched him in the face. The executive wheeled back, and Silver was pleased to see that Proton appeared to have a split lip from the hit. He was, needless to say, no longer smiling.

"Insolent brat, who do you think you are?" Proton snarled.

"The one who's going to bring down Team Rocket!" Silver yelled angrily, unaware of how overly dramatic his words sounded. He leapt forward for another swing at Proton, but changed course mid-swing when he saw the executive reach for a pokeball from his belt. Angling his fist downward, Silver managed to awkwardly punch the man's wrist, which didn't really hurt either of them that much (and looked a little lame), but still knocked the pokeball to the ground, where it rolled away. Proton snarled a curse at the boy and proceeded to engage him in a fistfight.

It at first appeared that Silver had the upper hand; he was powered by pure anger- the source of which he didn't quite understand at the moment- and had been living on the streets for just as long as Proton had, and so knew his fighting style. However, once Silver managed to pin Proton to the ground so he could pummel his fists into the man's face, Proton had had quite enough of the boy. Pulling a taser out of his pocket, he promptly struck the boy in the side, earning a cry of pain and surprise from him and allowing Proton time to push him off. He got to his feet panting and wiping blood off his face. Glaring down at the paralyzed Silver, he replaced the taser in his pocket and went to grab another, presumably more deadly, weapon.

"Ack, uh-oh!" Ben, who had been watching the scene in a bit of a daze, finally came to. "Pichu, you gotta help out!" Ben's pichu, which had been cheerily playing a tune the whole time, nodded happily and scurried over to dance around Proton's legs and play his ukulele even more cheerily. Proton didn't quite know what to make of this- he had never seen a pichu play an instrument before, never mind see one dance around his feet when in such a dire situation. He settled for laughing haughtily at it. Croconaw slammed his forehead into his hand and leapt over the still-paralyzed Silver, grabbing the ukulele out of Pichu's hands.

"_Idiot_," he hissed at Pichu, performing another jump to get to Proton's eye level and slamming the instrument into the side of his head, effectively knocking him out. "_The hell? How did that knock him out?_" Croconaw asked, looking at the instrument in his hands.

Ben had rushed over to where Silver lay, and was trying to rouse the boy. "_Wellllll,_" Picu began, apparently uncaring about either of the limp bodies around him, "_that ukulele broke once before, when I first met Ben. Since I was going to help him be a ranger and all, we decided to make it out of really hard wood._" He looked uncaringly at Proton's body. "_You'd be surprised how often this happens._"

"_Would I now?_" Croconaw was beginning to wonder if Pichu's cheery disposition masked a complete psychopath. He hesitantly gave back the ukulele when Pichu reached for it, unsure of whether he was giving a madman back his weapon of choice.

"You bastard! That's cheating!" Silver, who had apparently recovered full motion (and lung capacity), promptly leapt to his feet and kicked the green haired and unconscious executive, who groaned pathetically in response. "You have no honour!"

"Gah, hey, wait! You recover too fast," Ben said in surprise as he got up and tried (unsuccessfully) to pull Silver off the man. "Oh poop platters. Pichu, help me out?" Pichu nodded and scuttled over to where Silver was before Croconaw could reach out and stop him, fearing for his trainer's safety. And that fear was rightly placed, for Ben promptly let go of Silver so Pichu could climb halfway up Silver's back and loose an electric shock on him. Silver, feeling electricity coursing through him for the second time in two minutes let out a yell and again fell to the ground.

"Stupid rat…Croconaw…use Curse…" Silver mumbled, slightly incoherently, from the ground. Croconaw ignored the command since he neither knew Curse nor thought it would be a good thing to do to attack their only allies at this point. Instead, he waddled over to where Silver lay and hesitantly poked him in the side, trying to wake him.

_Poor guy…_ He thought, looking down at his trainer. _He's having a really rough day._

"Don't worry about waking him Croconaw!" Ben crowed, and grabbed Silver's feet so he could drag him off to the side. "It's about time we went to bed anyway!"

Croconaw highly doubted that it was entirely wise to fall asleep in an enemy's hideout- especially with an enemy unconscious right beside you- and highly doubted that Silver would approve of this plan when he came to. But Ben, rather unexpectedly, hoisted Silver onto his shoulders and stuffed him in a nearby air vent, while the redhead strung together some half hearted curses. Ben and Pichu followed immediately after, and Croconaw clambered in after them, assuming that this was to be their shelter for the night.

_What an odd day…_he thought to himself, before getting cozy between Ben the happy-go-lucky pokemon ranger and Silver in a Team Rocket ninja hideout air vent.

* * *

There was complete silence in the foyer of the Ranger Academy- Kellyn was struck dumb at the unconscious girl and, though he knew he was supposed to do _something_, he didn't yet know what that something was. And so the silence remained. At least, until he heard a door opening and closing from somewhere behind him. And with Kellyn's luck, he knew exactly who had just walked through that door.

"Mr. Hajime. Shouldn't you be up in the-" there was silence as Kellyn imagined Kincaid peering around him and spotting Mica on the floor. "What the devil did you do to my daughter?" He hissed, moving around Kellyn to crouch beside Mica.

"Well, sir, there was this bidoof and it charged at her, so I kind of…" Kellyn trailed off, aware of how bad his next words would sound. Mr. Kincaid looked up and seemed to pierce through Kellyn with his gaze.

_Whoa…when did Kincaid get so intimidating?_ Kellyn thought to himself as he backed up a step.

"Go on. What did you do?"

"I…forgot-she-was-hurt-and-pushed-her-out-of-the-way," he said quickly, hoping subconsciously that if he said the words fast enough and in one breath that he wouldn't get in as much trouble. There was a very pregnant pause, and then Kincaid spoke.

"Go get the school nurse. Now." Kellyn began walking away, fully aware that he was not walking away unpunished- Mr. Kincaid had simply not decided on a sufficient punishment for him yet.

_Damn it all…why does nothing ever happen like it should?_ Kellyn cursed inwardly as he walked, hating his bad luck.

Mica woke up the next morning bleary eyed and with a dull pain in her side.

_Hn. De ja vu? _

"Mica."

"Oh dear…father, your voice isn't the nicest thing to wake up to." Mica told him, not yet awake enough to catch herself before the words left her mouth. It was a few seconds later that she realized that may not have been the wisest thing to say.

"This is the _second time_ you've woken up in a hospital in the past month," he said, thankfully ignoring her words. "When will you learn to take proper care of yourself? Because despite what you may think, I do not enjoy seeing you mangled and bleeding."

Mica seemed to ponder this for a moment, and Kincaid at first thought she was pondering the last thing he had said to her. "This is a hospital?" she finally asked.

"Technically, it's the nurse's office in the school. Be thankful we have a competent enough nurse to replace the stitches you ripped."

"Well, why would you say we were in a hospital then?"

"It was the first word that came to mind."

"Well, you've been sitting there for who knows how long, couldn't you have thought up a better word?"

Kincaid quite wanted to smack her at that point. "That's irrelevant! The point is, you are once again injured, and I am not at all happy about it."

"Oh, well, sorry about that. I'll try to refrain from getting stabbed or attacked by a rabid bidoof next time."

_Do I get away with more sass if I'm hurt?_

"You're grounded!" Kincaid finally snapped, resorting back to what he usually did when he was angry with Mica.

"I know. You grounded me a couple days ago." Kincaid narrowed his eyes at her.

"No, I mean you are grounded from going outside at all." And with that, he rose out of his seat and strode out of the room.

"Gah, wait, what? But I'll get scurvy!" _Oh wait…that's with vitamin C. What disease comes with a lack of vitamin D? _

On his way out, Kincaid passed by Kate and Keith outside the door. Kate was holding a rather large, pink flower in her hand.

"Ms. Hitomi," Kincaid snapped, rounding on the two teens. "Where did you get that flower?" _It looks like you picked it from the garden, girl._

"Er…"

"We're bringing it to Mica, sir," Keith said, hoping to fend off any anger from the teacher. Since the two did in fact pluck the flower from the school's garden when Janice wasn't looking.

"I don't care. Where did you get it?"

"You're going to get us in trouble for caring about your daughter?" Kate asked, trying to keep the accusation out of her tone.

"Detention for both of you." Kincaid snapped before turning on his heel and leaving. The duo watched him leave, a little stunned.

"…It's like he's some sort of detention-giving, rule loving…machine guy," Keith said, apparently struggling with how to put his thoughts into words.

"Elegantly put," Kate said, not a trace of sarcasm in her voice. "Now. Let's go visit the trainer, shall we?"

"Yeah. Shame Kellyn couldn't be here to apologize."

"Indeed. Suspended again, poor lad."

* * *

"Gah! The hell?" There was a rather loud banging sound as Silver woke up in a very cramped space with his croconaw cuddling into him and close enough to Ben to smell his breath. And he thought he felt a small weight on his stomach which he rather thought could be that annoying pichu.

"Swearing means not caring, said the sableye to the little guy," Ben mumbled, still partially asleep.

"Wake up, you weakling!" Silver snapped, irritated at the rhyme and sore all over. When Ben still didn't move, he grabbed the sleeping pichu from his stomach and shoved it into Ben's lolling mouth.

"Gah! Pfft..pfft!" Ben woke up them, spitting pichu out and trying to get the fur off his tongue. Pichu, oddly enough, was still asleep. "Hey, you're awake!" He noticed Silver glaring at him, and gave him a cheerful smile.

"I woke up _before_ you, you idiot!" Silver said. "Where the hell are we?"

"In a vent," Ben replied, as if it was the most normal thing in the world to wake up in an air vent. "Come on, let's continue our mission!" He promptly began squirming around, accidently kicking Croconaw and shoving Silver into the vent wall.

"For Mew's sake, quit shoving! I'm sore all over," Silver said, slamming Ben into the other side of the vent.

"Yes, I imagine being shocked twice in one day would do that to you." Ben had turned all the way around by now, and was heading towards what appeared to be the vent's exit with the sleeping pichu safely in his pocket. Left alone with Croconaw, Silver glared down at his partner.

"Why didn't you stop this?" He snarled at his pokemon. Croconaw shrugged.

"_Didn't really know how to_," He responded, though he knew Silver couldn't understand. The red haired trainer 'humphed' and shuffled past him, giving Ben a hard push to expel him from the vent. There was a boyish 'ouch!' as he hit the floor, along with a deeper groan. Silver crawled forward.

Looking down, he saw that Ben had landed on a still-unconscious Proton. Smiling evilly, he told Ben to get out of the way. Jumping out of the vent, Silver landed both feet on the man's back, earning a much louder groan and causing his face to twitch in reaction to the pain.

_Heh heh…maybe I broke a rib_, Silver thought as Croconaw crawled out of the vent behind him. He noticed the pokeball belt at Proton's waist, and his smile grew. _Finders keepers_. He reached down and grabbed the two pokeballs he could see without Ben noticing. He'd check what they were later.

"Come on, buddy!" Ben said happily. "Let's keep going."

Silver, for the first time, smiled at the overly cheerful ranger, even choosing to ignore the fact that Ben had called him 'buddy'. "Fine with me. Croconaw, come."

_Well, that's one order of business taken care of_, he thought as the two left Proton behind in the middle of the hall. _Wonder what kind of pokemon these are…_

Moving through the rest of the halls was easy- Croconaw quickly dispatched of any grunts that got in their way (usually by knocking the grunts themselves out instead of their pokemon) and pretty soon Silver, Ben, Croconaw and Pichu found themselves in front of a door that apparently led to another executive- Petrel's- office. They were led there by a grunt, terrified at the sight of Croconaw's rows of teeth, had promised them information in exchange for protection from Croconaw. Apparently, they'd need a password in order to get to the heart of the hideout. And this was the man that knew the password.

"It's locked," Ben whined, jiggling the door handle and pouting. He was shoved aside by Silver, who very dramatically raised a foot and kicked at the door as hard as he could, thinking he would kick it down. Apart from making a very loud _bang!_ The kick did nothing. Enraged, Silver began swearing and slamming at the door with his fists and feet, which highly alarmed Ben and Pichu. Croconaw, however, was more then used to his trainers odd tantrums and turned his attention instead to the man who had come up behind them. He was slightly scrawny, with dark brown hair carefully combed back and an immaculate suit.

"_Who are you?_" Croconaw asked the man, though to everyone in the room but Pichu it came out as 'croconaw?' Ben looked around and, in noticing the additional man, became even more alarmed.

"Hwa! It-It's _Giovanni_!" He shouted, jumping back and dramatically pointing at the man. Now, there were very few things that would pull Silver back to reality when in mid-tantrum, but Ben had been lucky enough to find one of them. Turning around, he observed the man before him.

"That's not Giovanni, you idiot." Silver huffed, crossing his arms.

"Yes I am!" The man yelled indignantly, his voice far too high pitched to be passable for what Silver knew to be Giovanni's deep rumbling voice. "I am Giovanni!"

"Hail Giovanni!" A murkrow appeared at his shoulder, cawing in human language.

"Hi little birdie!" Ben greeted, putting complete trust in Silver when he said that this man was not Giovanni. "What a clever little thing." _Twang_. Pichu strummed his ukulele in response.

"That's impossible! Murkrow can't imitate people." Silver pointed dramatically at the bird, sounded almost as if the bird's talent had offended him.

"Well, mine can." Not-Giovanni responded.

"Well, it shouldn't."

"But it does."

"BUT IT SHOULDN'T!" Silver apparently was not about to accept this oddity without a fight.

"BUT IT DOES," the man yelled back, at equal volume as Silver, though sounded absolutely delighted. He even had the gall to giggle in a way that could only be described as bizarre, sounding more like a stuttering hiss than a laugh.

"Hail Giovanni!" The bird cawed again.

_Twang_. Pichu gleefully started playing with its ukulele, strumming wildly and not really making music.

"Hail Giovanni! Hail Giovanni! _Hail Giovanni_!" Murkrow began cawing wildly, and Not-Giovanni began his demented giggling again, pleased with the situation. Silver could practically feel his sanity slipping, so he did what he usually did when stressed. He curled his hand into a fist and took a swing at the murkrow. Murkrow, being the intelligent avian that it was, had enough insight to simply fly away, leaving Not-Giovanni to take the hit from Silver.

"Gah! What the hell, kid?" The man snapped, whipping blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Oh my goodness! Lookie there partner- his _hair_ is falling off!" Ben cried, absolutely astounded to see the brown swatch of hair slip sideways to reveal light purple wisps of hair underneath. "You must have a really strong punch!"

"No, dumbass, it's a wig. I _told_ you this scrawny loser isn't Giovanni!" Silver responded, reaching forward to yank off the wig.

"Hail Giovanni!"

"SHUT UP," Silver roared, throwing the stolen wig at the fluttering black bird. The murkrow squawked and flapped around, instantly entangling itself in the wig. Looking back at the now wigless man, Silver instantly recognized who it was. "You're Petrel." He deadpanned, looking at the man with the wispy purple hair and scrawny body.

_Apart from the outfit and clean-shaven face, he looks exactly like I remember_, Silver thought to himself. Petrel, however, didn't seem to have any recollection of him.

"Yes, I am," Petrel said quietly, hunched over into himself and still touching his sore mouth. "And you ruined my costume!" He howled suddenly, startling Ben and causing a spike in Silver's irritation. "I even shaved my goatee for that. I _committed_ myself. And you _ruined_ it!"

"Quit whining, you stupid weakling! It's giving me a headache."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hold up there partner." Ben suddenly spoke up from the corner. Silver was past getting upset at Ben's use of the word 'partner'. "If he's Petrel…then he knows the password!"

"I am Petrel!" The man- Petrel- declared suddenly. Drawing himself up to full height (which wasn't very high) he promptly grabbed at his clothing and ripped it off, throwing it aside. "Team Rocket executive, master of disguise and ever popular with the ladies! Fear my wrath!"

"Gah! Put your clothes back on you _idiot_!" Silver cried, shielding his eyes. Because, while he had (thankfully) remembered to put his Team Rocket pants on underneath his suit, Petrel was getting up in years, and his memory was slipping because of it. As such, he had forgotten to put his standard Team Rocket shirt on underneath his outfit, and was baring his skinny, hairless chest to the two boys. Silver was cursing and covering his eyes, while Ben seemed too shocked to move. Pichu and Murkrow both seemed unaffected- Pichu continued his cheerful playing and Murkrow- used to his master's foolishness- continued fluttering around in the wig. Croconaw helpfully grabbed the suit's overcoat and handed it to Petrel.

"Ah, thank you," he said politely to the pokemon, putting the overcoat back on, which didn't fully cover his chest, but the actual shirt was too damaged from being ripped to put back on. "Murkrow," Petrel whined, turning to the bird. "Why didn't you remind me? That's your _job_- I taught you to speak so you could remind me of…" Petrel trailed off for a second, looking slightly lost, "stuff. Like the password. Do you even remember the password? Because I don't!" The man seemed on the edge of panic- he was told to remember the password at all costs.

"Hail Giovanni!" The memory Murkrow cawed, still tangled in the wig.

"Oh right," he said, sounding relieved. "That's it." He turned back to the boys- Ben was still slightly shocked (it didn't help that Petrel was still not properly dressed) but Silver was smiling. He laughed.

"Hey, you stupid old man, thanks for telling us the password." He began stalking out, towards the door that he and Ben had passed a while ago that the grunt had said would be the one the password would open.

"Oh, hey, yeah! Yay us!" Ben cheered, and happily followed after Silver with the pokemon following behind.

"Not going to work boys," Petrel sang, stopping them in their tracks. Silver turned around to glare at him.

"And why not?" He said, crossing his arms.

"Because the mechanical thinger only responds to _my_ voice," Petrel responded, thumping his skinny chest with his fist. There was a pregnant pause, and then Silver leapt towards the man. Grabbing Petrel by his wispy hair, he again started off towards the door, pulling Petrel behind him. Ben looked a little concerned.

"Hey, um, partner?" He said over Petrel's complaints. Silver grunted to show that he heard. "Isn't that a little…harsh? Couldn't the murkrow back there have said the password for us."

"Nope. We need his voice, remember? And this is how we get it. Murkrow doesn't have Petrel's voice." Sensing that Ben was about to protest again, he added in, "and besides, it doesn't actually hurt him."

"YES IT DOES," Petrel screamed, trying to get the softer boy to take pity on him.

"He's lying," Silver said easily, smiling to himself. He knew damn well Petrel was not lying.

"Oh, okay!" Ben, however, was completely inexperienced in detecting lies, and so trusted Silver's words. The little party of humans and pokemon made their way back to the door that apparently blocked the way to whatever the hideout was keeping secret.

* * *

**Yeah, it never made sense that not only could a murkrow TALK, but it could imitate Petrel's voice so well that a voice-detecting-machine thinger couldn't even tell. And yeah…sorry for the (incredibly slow) update, but I solemnly swear that this story will be completed…someday. And that I am up to no good.**

**Gawd…I love me some dementia inflicted Petrel. Isn't that just the best?**


	17. Slight Crack in the Plan

Mica was discharged from the 'hospital' a few hours later, and left to spend the lunch hour with Kate, Keith and Rhythmi. As they walked out towards Ascension Square to eat their lunch, Mica tried to strike up a conversation with Rhythmi, whom she hadn't had much chance to talk with. Kate had mentioned when she came to visit Mica in the nurse's office that since Rhythmi wanted to be an operator, she had completely different classes and so her study period fell in a different time slot.

"Hi, so um, Rhythmi?" Mica greeted the blond.

"Yes?"

"Ummm…" _Probably should have thought out a question beforehand_, Mica realized. "What kind of partner pokemon do you want?"

"Operators don't have partners. That's just rangers."

"Oh. Huh." Mica reflected on this for a second. "So what is an operator, anyway?"

Rhythmi sighed. Mica got the vague feeling that Rhythmi didn't really want to talk to her. Which was fair enough, since the only two times they had talked Mica had been somewhat rude to her. "An operator stays in the base to direct rangers and provides information via voicemail."

"Sounds fun," Mica said, a little unenthusiastically. She had been hoping for a longer answer, but it was obvious from Rhythmi's tone that she was not interested in talking. Thankfully, they had reached Ascension Square by this point, and the four of them promptly plopped down to eat their lunch. Mica released her three pokemon and laid out the pokefood she had gotten from the caretaker, Janice.

"Hey, Mica. How's Zefyre gonna battle when he's half blind?" Keith asked, eyeing the little charmander that had one eye forced shut. Kate gave him a look that clearly said 'you're being insensitive' and Zefyre looked up at Mica, apparently wanting to know the answer to this question as well.

"I was thinking that as we train, we'll focus on learning how to hear pokemon that try to sneak up on him."

"But won't that be-" However, they didn't get to hear what Keith thought that would be, because Rhythmi interrupted him with a shriek and tried to scramble away from the beedrill that had appeared behind her, attracted by the smell of food. It tried to follow Rhythmi, missed, and flew headfirst into the Pledge Stone. Mica noticed that it seemed to be listing slightly to the left as it flew, and it moved at quite a dozy pace.

"Er, is it…alright?" Mica asked, watching as it began to fly in slow circles, buzzing to itself.

"Kind of," Kate said, turning back to her food. "That's Crash. He buzzes around here sometimes, because he's learned that the students will give him food." The beedrill, Crash, attempted to fly over to Kate, only to inexplicably fall out of the air halfway there. "Getting food is hard for him. He's, um…mentally challenged." Kate explained as she tossed some food over to him. Crash happily began eating up.

"He's awfully cute," Mica said, watching Crash finish his food and fly off to another part of the grounds, probably hoping to get some more food form other students.

"You have a bizarre perception of what's cute," Rhythmi told her huffily as she went back to her spot.

"Rhyth's scared to death of beedrill," Keith said.

"Shut up Keith."

The rest of lunch passed by without anymore drama. Kate, Keith and Mica planned out what kind of pranks they could pull to amuse themselves. Rhythmi refused to join in on the grounds that she didn't want to end up suspended like Kellyn. By the end of lunch they had a pretty good idea of something they could do that very night.

"And the best part is, no one will have any proof it was us!" Kate exclaimed happily.

"Unless you're caught red handed." Rhythmi pointed out.

"Aww, Rhyth, don't be like that," Keith said, flinging an arm around the blonde's shoulders. Kate gave Mica a meaningful look, and Mica took note of the pleased look on Rhythmi's face.

"Anyway, see you in study hall Mica." Kate waved as the three of them headed to their next class and Mica waved goodbye and went off to the library. Locating Isaac again at the back, she went and took a seat next to him, pulling out the book that she was supposed to be reading.

"Hello Mica." Isaac greeted politely before returning to the rather thick book that he was reading.

"Hey Isaac. What are you reading?" She asked.

"Quantum Physics," he muttered. Had Isaac not been so engrossed in his book, he might have noticed the lack of immediate response from Mica, or her stunned look.

_He…he's reading _pure_ Quantum Physics? Not a book about Quantum Physics but just pure…freaking Physics!_ Mica was imagining a book filled with complex symbols and numbers, with the only letters appearing in a formula. _That…that…_

"That has got to be the most manly thing I've ever heard," she said in a hushed voice. It almost seemed weird to her that he wasn't screaming 'WE! ARE! SPARTA!' while he read or eating raw eggs by the dozen, so intense was his current activity. But then again, to Mica it seemed that his composure added even more manliness to the situation.

Isaac was confused. He had never heard anyway describe Physics as 'manly'. If anything, as far as he was aware, Physics was culturally viewed as being 'nerdy'. After a few seconds of observing her awed face, he was forced to conclude that she wasn't mocking him. Which only added to his confusion. "W-What?"

"Teach me!" she blurted, ignoring (or not noticing) Isaac's confusion. _I bet he knows all kinds of cool secrets of the universe! I must know them!_

"Um, shouldn't you be doing your own reading though?"

"But my reading is _boring_. I want to learn Physics from you instead." Mica insisted. Isaac thought it through. It would be interesting to see if he could teach her some basic Physics, and teaching was reported to be the best way to learn.

He also quite liked to be given the opportunity to show off. But he would have never admitted that out loud. He made a decision.

"Fine. But you have to read- and make notes on- a chapter and a half before I do. Okay?" It was Thursday, and she had to have three chapters read by the end of Friday. This seemed like a fair deal to Isaac. Mica mulled it over for a bit.

"I guess that's alright," she said slowly. Isaac smiled warmly at her, and Mica felt herself fall in love. Just a little bit.

_He's adorable!_

* * *

"Say the password."

"No."

"Say the password!"

"No!"

"SAY THE GODDAMN PASSWORD!"

"NEVER!"

"Say it before I poke one of your eyes out!"

"I won't!"

"Hey, um, partner?" Ben interrupted the spat between Silver and Petrel before Silver could actually poke one of Petrel's eyes out. "I don't think this is working."

"It'll work." Silver spat. "Eventually." He went back to twisting and pulling Petrel's wispy hair in an attempt to force him to say the password. Petrel, meanwhile, had taken up dementedly repeating 'I won't' in a kind of song format.

"_I agree with Silver!_" Pichu declared, much to Croconaw's surprise. And Silver's, when the little Pichu began beating Petrel's (still shirtless) body with his ukulele. Ben, however, seemed unalarmed, if a little uncomfortable.

"Pichu…you have to stop being so violent. You're a ranger's partner!" Ben said. Pichu simply ignored him, and continued to beat Petrel with his ukulele. After about a minute of this Petrel finally relented and shouted the words 'hail Giovanni' into the voice machine. The doors to the final room whirred open, and Silver happily dropped Petrel. Pichu continued beating him however.

"_Weren't you saying before how Silver should be more calm?_" Croconaw asked the pichu, uncomfortable with so much violence concentrated in such a little body.

"_Yup. Just look at me. I am calm! Calm and forceful, that's me._" Pichu said all this while merrily beating a thoroughly defeated Petrel.

"You can stop that now." Silver told Pichu, considerably more friendly to him than he had ever been. There was just something about the sight of Pichu beating a defenceless Rocket that endeared Silver to him. Pichu happily hopped back on Ben's shoulder and the group of them made their way into the recently opened room, bracing for the worst.

What they saw in there was a bunch of wiggling Electrodes, some Team Rocket Grunt workers, a rather large machine in the centre of the room and a very surprised Team Rocket Executive.

_Arianna._ Silver thought, recognizing the tall red haired woman. He shifted into a battle stance and had Croconaw attack her before she had a chance to say anything.

Arianna was a tall woman, with a shock of bright red hair a few shades brighter than Silver's. She was the kind of woman who looked at every situation she was in thinking of how she could bend it to her advantage. She was also an intimidating woman, with hard eyes, a shark's grin and features that would look more at home on a man's face than a woman's. She wore a stark white uniform that revealed her legs via a slit up the side of her skirt, perhaps to compensate for her manly features. She also had a ridiculous amount of muscle. Some grunts said it was because she routinely and literally squeezed the life out of grunts and pokemon that had failed her. Other's said it because she ate machoke tongue out of a makuhita's stomach for breakfast. Proton claimed that her abnormal strength came from the fact that she was actually a man.

Oddly, one of these rumours is correct.

"Impudent brat." She snarled, releasing a vileplume. "Made a little ranger friend have we? Your daddy would be so pleased if he knew how hard you were looking for him."

"Old hag." Silver snapped back, thinking to himself that nothing had really changed between himself and and insulting each other was how they communicated. The basic translation of the slew of insults that had passed between them was 'Silver. Why the hell are you here with a ranger? If this has to do with your father, you know damn well he left us too,' to which Silver's response was 'shut up.'

"What are you guys just standing around for? Help me!" Arianna snapped at the workers, who hesitantly began to approach the fight.

_Time to test out the new pokemon_, Silver thought, reaching for one of the two pokeballs he had got off of Proton. "Come help your new master!" He shouted as he threw it out. And from the pokeball emerged a floating purple ball with a pattern that somewhat resembled a skull and crossbones etched below a confused face. There were holes sporadically throughout its body that were slowly seeping gas into the air. Ben recognized this pokemon as one that caused a lot of harm to the environment. But it was still a pokemon, so he wasn't sure what he was supposed to think of it.

"Kofffff." The koffing looked around, probably trying to find Proton in the crowd of people. Eventually it turned around and saw Silver holding his pokeball. It looked slightly irritated and floated over to Silver.

"Fing!" It huffed, releasing a rather large puff of gas in Silver's face before floating away, presumably to find its master. Silver was coughing something, and swearing in between breaths.

"Well, I don't think you should have taken someone else's pokemon in the first place," Ben said with a hint of self righteousness.

"Shove it." Silver told him, grabbing Gastly's pokeball. "Wait," Silver paused, "how did you know that was someone else's pokemon? You didn't see me grab them."

"Oh, that's easy." Ben answered. "When we slept together, I noticed you had three pokeballs. But when you were roughing up Petrel, you had five. I kind of assumed you stole them."

"What do you mean when you two slept together?" Arianna asked, not actually mocking this time, just genuinely confused. Silver's face was about as red as his hair.

"You didn't have to phrase it like that, you dipshit!" He yelled at Ben, who was currently occupying himself with capturing the mass of pokemon that was advancing on them.

"Like what?"

"Like…oh never mind!" There were more important matters at hand than Ben's poor choice of words. Such as the fact that Croconaw was nearly unconscious due to the combined efforts of Arianna's vileplume and arbok. Silver sent out Gastly and Zubat to help, not wanting to risk having the second pokemon he stole off of Proton attack him as well.

With the other two pokemon helping out Silver and Ben managed to defeat and capture the opponents' pokemon (along with Pichu intermittently helping Ben by playing and helping Silver by beating pokemon and grunts alike senseless with his ukulele). Silver had even managed to slip Croconaw a hyper potion so he could battle at full strength again. With Silver shouting orders and Ben…drawing circles, neither of them noticed being joined by two more male Executives.

"See, I told you he was still here, Proton!" came a reedy old voice.

"Hey, punk! Where's my pokeball?" shouted a younger, much deeper voice. Silver turned around to see a slouching, wheezing, bleeding and very pissed Proton alongside Petrel. Koffing was floating haughtily above his head.

"Right here," said Silver easily, whipping Koffing's pokeball straight at Proton's ribs. He was disappointed to see that Proton didn't so much as gasp in pain as he did hiss slightly at the discomfort.

_Damn it…I guess I didn't snap his ribs when I landed on him. Must only be bruised._

"Well aren't you charming," Proton said as he stooped to pick up the pokeball. Neither he nor Silver decided to acknowledge the fact that Petrel had joined the fray with a giddy 'weeee!' as he pulled out what appeared to be a cactus out of who-knew-where to use as a weapon. Because neither Proton nor Silver are the type of man to acknowledge such foolishness. Besides, he was strangely efficient with his cactus attack.

"How about you give me back my other pokemon too now." Proton tried to leer haughtily, but couldn't quite get the right effect when he had a black eye and was slouching from bruised ribs.

"How about you go fu-" Silver started.

"_Swearing means not caring!_" Ben reminded Silver in a sing-song voice, still capturing away. He and Silver's pokemon had almost dealt with all of the Rocket's pokemon by this point- after that it would simply be the freakishly strong Arianna and the cactus-wielding Petrel to deal with. Pichu could take care of the grunts themselves.

"Whatever!" Silver snapped. "Gastly, take him down!" Silver had the pokemon charge Proton, who instantly had Koffing fight for him.

"Koffing, Smog!" Proton shouted. At least he could still battle effectively. Though he wished he still had his other pokemon to send out too.

"Gastly, Lick!" The battle between Proton and Silver wore on, while behind Silver Ben, Zubat and Croconaw were trying to take down the combined forces of Arianna and Petrel. Pichu was busy knocking out the grunts who weren't already slumped on the floor. After a few minutes Gastly had managed to Lick away enough of Koffing's health to render him unconscious. And, much to Silver's surprise, Gastly also managed to gain enough experience from the battle to evolve into a floating, furry purple mass known as a Haunter.

"_My hands…so pretty…_" Gastly said to herself, looking down at her new hands, which weren't attached to any sort of arm and instead hovered in the vicinity of her body and were instead held up by a ghostly aura. Haunter hadn't been much for pretty things until then, but she just couldn't get enough of the way her hands shimmered. She'd never had hands before.

Silver, finished with his battle and over the surprise of his pokemon's evolution, turned around to take in the battle between the two other executives and Ben. He noted with dissatisfaction that Ben and the pokemon weren't doing at all well against Petrel and Arianna.

"Haunter," he told his pokemon, who was still admiring her new hands. "Help them out."

"Haaa!" Haunter charged into the battle, using her new hands for the first time by Sucker Punching Petrel, who was readying his cactus again. The wispy haired Executive tumbled backwards and fell into one of the wiggling electrodes. It was then that Silver noticed for the first time that the electric pokemon all seemed to be hooked up to the machine in the centre of the room. He had noticed it, because when Petrel knocked the electrode out of place the spot he was hooked up to began sparking and crackling like mad. Electrode, recognizing a chance for freedom, began rolling away as frantically as he could. The machine began beeping, trying to tell the occupants that something was going wrong.

"Hey, partner!" Ben shouted, working with Croconaw and Pichu to try and fend off a raging Arianna. "I think it's in our best interests to destroy that machine. Probably."

Silver gave a curt nod, and ordered Haunter to push all of the electrode out of their place. He, meanwhile, relieved Zubat of the responsibility of trying to keep Petrel down. The small bat trilled gratefully and went to join Ben, Croconaw and Pichu, attempting to pull the prickles out of his wing at the same time. Silver enjoyed a happy few minutes beating on Petrel before the beeping on the machine fizzled silent in a rather anticlimactic way.

The fighting stopped for a second, as everyone in the room looked at the dead machine.

…_Now what?_ Silver wondered to himself. He had come this way to destroy whatever was at the heart of the hideout. That was done, yet they were still stuck in a room with two Rocket Executives (Proton had left, muttering something about a bath). It was Ben who finally broke the silence.

"Woohoo! Mission clear!" He again did the pose where he held out his styler. Pichu '_twang_'ed beside him. "Excellent job partner," he told Silver as he started rushing for the exit. "Time to go!"

"Wait! What-" Ben had grabbed a stunned Silver by the back of the shirt and was leading him out of the hideout, the pokemon following behind him. It didn't take long before they were out of sight of the two Executives.

Petrel and Arianna were still a little stunned. They hadn't even noticed Haunter going around knocking off the electrode. In fact, they were a little mystified as to what exactly had just happened. The only thing they knew for sure was their Generator DX 2000 (made in China) was very dead, and they would be facing a very angry Archer when the time came to report what had happened.

"Isn't it nice to see Silver make friends?" Petrel said in a dreamy voice. Arianna just looked at him. "I mean," he continued, "he was always such an antisocial kid. I worried about him, you know," he told Arianna sincerely, hugging the cactus to his bare chest. Arianna wrinkled her nose, but made no comment on either Petrel's words or his actions.

"Friends. Right." Arianna was thinking of Ben's comment about him and Silver sleeping together. "What the hell happened to Proton?"

"I don't know. He was in a right state though, eh?"

* * *

"Ladder?"

"Check."

"Staple gun?"

"Check."

Night had fallen at the Ranger Academy. Mica had completed her reading, and listened intently while Isaac tried explaining basic physics to her. It hadn't gone well. Halfway through her pokegear made an odd beeping sound, and Mica realized upon checking it that the radio app was no longer working. That had distracted her for the rest of the lesson. She didn't miss it much- she wasn't that into the radio- but it did seem an odd time to turn off.

But, at the moment, she was sitting on the table in the dorm room, watching as Keith read various objects off a list and Kate checked to make sure she had them in her bag. The objects were the necessities for their first bit of fun at the academy.

"The Great Tool?" Keith asked.

"No, Kellyn got suspended, remember?"

"I was talking about the banner."

"Oh. Check. How is that a tool?"

"Never mind. That's everything. Let's head out." The three of them snuck down the stairs and out the door. As soon as they were outside Mica asked the question that she had thought of while Keith was reading the list.

"Hey Kate?"

"Yeah?"

"How did you get a ladder in that bag?"

"What?"

"Well, when Keith asked about a ladder, you said 'check'."

"Oh. No, we're using the one in the storage shed by Ms. Clair's classroom."

"…Won't Ms. Clair see us?"

"Of course not," Keith said. "The teachers don't sleep in their classrooms…er, right?"

"Well, I would imagine not." Kate replied, but not sounding entirely convinced.

"Where do they sleep then?" Mica wondered. "Well, the human teachers, anyway. You do realize that Father doesn't sleep." This last comment was met by a few seconds of silence, until Keith said:

"That's just friggin' creepy Mica."

"Whatever. Let's just grab the ladder and get this done," Kate said.

It was all done with a fair amount of efficiency. The ladder was stolen ("temporarily borrowed"), Keith climbed it with the staple gun in pocket and a corner of their banner in his mouth while Kate held the bottom. The whole operation took no more than ten minutes, then the banner was hung and the ladder was back in its rightful place (leaning against a wall, that is). The three teens paused to admire their craftsmanship and the four huge words that hung across the school.

"Beauty." Keith remarked.

"Absolutely stunning." Kate agreed. "Now let's get our arses back to bed before Kincaid catches us and decides he would quite fancy a coat made out of student hide."

"Smashing idea," Mica said, and the three of them promptly scampered back to their respective dorms and went to bed.

* * *

**A/N I'm a lazy ass. And I'm sorry. Isn't Petrel great? Gawd I love him. And I love writing crack humour- I don't have to stress about it making sense.**

**Any guesses on what the banner says?**

**A big thanks to all who have reviewed. I realized it's been a while since I acknowledged you. Seriously, reviews make my day exponentially better, and are scientifically proven (i.e., proven by SCIENCE) to increase my motivation.**


	18. Stupid Losers

Ben, Silver and their respective pokemon burst their way out of the Team Rocket/ex-ninja hideout, with Silver cussing loudly (which really should just be assumed by this point).

"What the hell did you just rush out of there for?" Silver fumed. "We were supposed to take down those two idiots!"

"Nope. Our mission was to destroy whatever was at the heart of the thinger. Which we did. So it was a mission clear!" Ben again posed with his styler, and Pichu twanged by his side. "Besides, I'm not actually authorized to arrest criminals." He admitted sheepishly.

"What? I thought rangers were like a kind of stupid cop," Silver said.

"Nope. Only Top Rangers can arrest people. The rest of us have to stick to protecting nature and pokemon," Ben told Silver with much less enthusiasm then usual.

"And you're okay with that?" Silver asked the non-smiling Ben.

"Well," he paused, "I would really…you know, love to be a Top Ranger. But, I don't think it'll happen. I kind of have this huge…mistake on my record."

"Oh yeah? What'd you do, trample a daisy?"

"No, I…" Ben's boyish face looked truly conflicted. He was obviously very troubled by the conversation. "Oh, never mind."

_Wait, is he…keeping a secret from me? I didn't know he was capable of that…_ Silver mused.

"No, tell me what happened." Silver demanded.

"I don't want to!"

"Tell me!"

"I…trampled a daffodil, like you said." Ben said guiltily, turning his face away from Silver.

"I said a daisy."

"It doesn't matter!" Ben snapped. Silver was so surprised by this that he decided to just let it go. For now, at least.

"Well, whatever then. I'm going to go challenge the gym. You coming with?"

Ben brightened up with an abruptness that shouldn't have been possible for a normal human. "Of course I am! I'll be your cheerleader!"

"Hmph. Fine. Let's go." The pair of them headed off towards the pokecentre, with Ben chatting aimlessly and Silver tuning him out, musing that Ben's tittering didn't bother him as much anymore.

_Beep! Beep! Beep!_

Mica groaned in her sleep as she rolled over to smack her alarm clock. She had set it last night, not wanting to repeat the cold shower experience. She had set it for 6 o'clock. And she had absolutely no intentions of staying awake from 6 until whenever she went to bed that night. She had a plan, that crafty girl did.

"Hnnng, clock?" Kate muttered vaguely in her sleep. Kate slept in the bunk bed beside Mica's, sharing it with Rhythmi, who slept on the top bunk while Kate claimed the bottom.

"Hush now. Back to sleep, little skitty," Mica told her sleepily.

"Nyah." Kate responded, before rolling over and letting out a mighty snore.

Mica stumbled over to the bathroom after gathering her outfit for that day. She sleepily threw her clothes on the bathroom counter and twisted the shower taps almost at random. After sticking her hand under the stream to test the temperature, she had herself a very pleasant, hot shower. She dressed, brushed her hair and generally went through the motions of preparing herself for the day.

Then she stumbled across the dorm and threw herself back on her bed. She'd sleep in, and wake up only early enough for breakfast. It was, in her mind, the most ingenious plan ever hatched.

A few hours later, she woke to being repeatedly jabbed in the side. She pushed the furry body of the culprit away and rolled over. A few seconds later she heard, but didn't really register, the sound of a pokeball being opened and an irritable voice saying '_what?_'

The next thing she knew the back of her head was being pelted with a stream of rather cold water.

"Argh! I hate you all!" Mica yelled at the top of her voice, throwing a pillow at Horatio's laughing form and Biv's closed shell. She noticed little Zefyre looking up at her with heartbroken eyes, and she felt herself soften. "Except you, Zefyre. I can't hate a sweetie like you."

"Char!" Zefyre seemed pleased. Mica yawned, stretched luxuriously, and headed straight out to the dining room, ready for breakfast.

She spotted Kate and Keith sitting together, having already finished their breakfast. She plunked herself down beside Kate and began piling up plates for herself and her pokemon.

"Oh man, are you excited or what?" Keith asked, giving Mica a happy poke in the ribs, which she flinched away from.

"Excited for what?" She asked, seeming more interested in her food (and keeping Horatio away from it) than Keith's question. Her comment earned her two 'are-you-actually-that-stupid?' looks from Kate and Keith. Then she remembered what they had done last night. "Oh right, that. You better believe it."

Breakfast passed by, and Mica waved a goodbye to Kate and Keith as they headed off to class. She started making her way to the library, wondering idly when the school would realize there was a giant banner hanging off the front of the building. Her thoughts were interrupted by a very displeased Mr. Kincaid throwing open the front doors and who, spotting her across the hall, began to make his way over to her. Recognizing his facial expression and purposeful walk as one that clearly stated 'you're in shit,' she promptly began trying to get to the library before he could catch up to her while pretending that she hadn't noticed him. She wasn't sure why the library was such a safe place, but it was the best she could think of.

"Mica, you stupid, _stupid_ girl. What on earth were you thinking?" Kincaid had caught up with her. Well, she may not know how fast the school would notice, but at least she knew her father would sense the banner's presence with lightning speed.

If questioned, the plan that Kate had put forth would be to act stupid, since there was no legitimate proof that they were the culprits. "Stupid?" Mica said, doing her best to look innocent. "How come?"

Kincaid pursed his lips and, without saying a word, grabbed his daughter's arm and dragged her outside to look at the front of the school, where a banner hung from end to end, proclaiming to the world:

FOR SALE, AS IS.

The 'as is' part had been Mica's idea, and she had to fight- hard- to keep a smirk from spreading across her face. She did her best to look shocked and, since she didn't want her father to get suspicious, mildly amused.

"You're telling me you had no part in this?" Kincaid asked her stiffly, closely judging her reaction.

"No, of course not," she said, smiling up at him. "But I wish I did. You know I have no artistic abilities whatsoever." There was a very significant pause where Kincaid and Mica- father and daughter- stared each other in the eye, each willing the other to back down and neither giving an inch. Stars were born and fizzled away, entire glaciers melted, continents shifted, and all the while Mica kept up an innocent I'm-a-model-daughter facial expression.

Finally, Kincaid looked away.

"Fine," he said curtly. "Proceed to the library and continue your studies. I will be testing you on the content of such later tonight."

"Okey dokey smokey!" Mica said brightly, and made a hasty retreat into the school, leaving her father standing outside, presumably to go find a janitor that could take down the banner. He'd probably eat it afterwards too (the banner, not the janitor), just to make sure no other student saw it.

He watched her go, feeling faint dissatisfaction and the usual feeling of secret relief that he felt whenever Mica did something rebellious or insubordinate. Of course, he loved rules, and it always made him _absolutely crazy_ whenever anyone- particularly his daughter- disobeyed them. But underneath that was the reassurance that Mica was not going to live her life as a depressed lump that stays in bed all day. While her soft-core rebellions made him look like a fool and her look like every other stupid teenager on the planet, it also told him that she still had energy, that she still had a lust for life.

It told him that she was _happy_. As long as she was happy, Kincaid could tolerate- if only just- her rule-breaking stupidity.

As long as she was happy. It would kill him if his daughter ended up the same way her mother did.

"Isaac-bisaac-fo-fisaac-fee-fi-fo-fisaac-Issac~" Mica sat down with Isaac at the back of the library, happily singing the name game to him.

"Mica, hi. You're late, I was beginning to wonder if you still existed."

_That seems an awfully radical thing to assume just because of lateness_, Mica thought, and cleverly iterated her thoughts with a profound "Huh?"

"Well, I was thinking last night, and I realized something." Isaac turned towards her, and seemed to be thinking very seriously about what he had realized. "You don't really care about the force that an objects hits the ground when it's dropped from a certain height, do you?"

"Nope," Mica said.

"Or about time vs. distance graphs."

"Not at all."

"Or calculating velocity."

"What's that?"

"I explained it to you yesterday!" Isaac seemed very flustered by this. "It's speed with a direction. How hard is that to remember?" He regretted his last sentence instantly. It sounded as though he was calling Mica stupid when, really, he didn't know how well people with normal I.Q.'s remembered things.

_That's the second time I've been called stupid this morning_, Mica thought. _Maybe it's me…?_

"Doesn't sound particularly hard to remember, when you put it like that. But what's your point?"

"I was considering just teaching you the frivolous albeit interesting aspects of physics that you don't need any real math skill for."

"Cool! Sounds awesome, let's do it!"

"Read your book first," he said stuffily.

"But it's boring…" Mica said, whinging like a child as she pulled out the heavy book and opened it to the designated page.

"No, no, _no_! You IDIOT! Sucker Punch damn it! SUCKER PUNCH!" Silver watched helplessly as his Haunter's attack did precious little on the opposing dewgong. The Mahogany Gym was an uncomfortably cold one, with frost rising from Silver's mouth with every word he said, and ice blocks located in seemingly random spots around the room. Silver gritted his teeth and hunched his shoulders against the cold.

"Yay Haunter! That was awesome!" Ben was cheering from the sidelines, which was something that not only infuriated Silver but also distracted his pokemon. They weren't used to being cheered on or encouraged…in any way, really.

"Dewgong, use Aurora Beam," said Pryce, the leader of the Mahogany Gym. He was a man who seemed to be in his late fifties, at least, and commanded his pokemon in a raspy voice that seemed at once confident and analytical. His skin was also a peculiar shade of blue, which alarmed Silver a little bit every time he looked directly at the man.

_Twang_. Pichu cheerily watched and played his ukulele as Silver's last pokemon fell to the ground, unconscious.

"You freaking IDIOT! How the hell did you let that piddly ass rainbow thing knock you out?" Silver raged at his fallen pokemon, who merely moaned slightly in response. Silver, displeased with the lack of fuel to continue raging, turned on Ben. "And you! What were you _thinking_? Yelling at my pokemon the whole time like some sort of- some sort of," Silver paused, scrambling in his over-stimulated mind trying to find a comparison to finish his simile, "yelling thing!" He finished lamely.

"Young man." Pryce had recalled his pleased dewgong, and was walking across the battlefield to Silver, who noticed that the elderly leader was not only slightly blue, but also shivering in a rather alarming way. "You let your emotions get the better of you disturbingly easily. It would be beneficial if you took some time off from training to cool your anger and learn to focus on what truly matters."

Silver sputtered incoherently for a second before coming up with a response. "Are you senile? Take a break from training?"

"Yes. To cool your anger and learn to focus on what really matters." Pryce repeated, sensing that Silver was the kind of youth that needed a message repeated several times before it even registered.

"Like a proper sweater so I don't end up a pneumonia-ridden freak like you?" Silver spat before turning on his heal and leaving, a constant flow of cuss words coming from his mouth. Ben followed happily behind, once more blissfully unaware of the madman with whom he was walking. Pryce watched the two of them leave, then huffed unhappily to himself and took his favourite seat on a rather large ice block nearby.

"Youth today…" he muttered to himself.

"That was an exciting battle!" Ben commented as he followed Silver down the street. Silver merely glared at him and grunted in response. "I mean, it was super cool how your pokemon tried so, so hard for you, right? I mean, they obviously trust you _loads_, and that means…" Ben prattled on while Silver ignored him, seeming to brood over his recent loss. This went on as the two- three including Pichu- trudged along the streets of Mahogany Town. They were almost to the Pokecentre when Silver finally said something.

"LOUDRED!" He shouted suddenly, startling Ben. The young ranger hadn't said a thing about loudred.

"Eh?"

"That's something that yells." Silver declared. He then rounded on Ben, pointing a dramatic finger and looking very serious. "YOU," he began, "are a yelling, screaming, big-mouthed, obnoxious, _ugly_ loudred!" His point made, Silver swiftly walked off and headed into the Pokecentre.

"Hey," said a shell-shocked Ben after a few seconds. "Loudred aren't ugly!" He rushed after Silver into the Pokecentre, ranting about the importance and subtle beauty of loudred. Silver's expression darkened as he waited at the counter for his pokemon to be healed.

"You _moron_, you're completely missing the point!" He snapped. Ben seemed confused.

"You made a point?"

Silver was about ready to smack Ben- probably with Pichu's ukulele, since it seemed to be a rather effective weapon. But the nurse on duty timidly interrupted them before he got the chance, saying that his pokemon had been fully healed.

"Excellent." Ben exclaimed, smiling at the nervous nurse. "Thanks! Let's go, partner."

"I'VE TOLD YOU," Silver roared, following Ben out of the Pokecentre. "NOT TO CALL ME PARTNER!"

_Why can't he see that I'm not someone he can just screw with whenever he pleases_, Silver fumed, unaware of his own bad choice of words.

"So where are you going next?" Ben asked. Silver thought about this for a second, distracted from his raging.

"Backtracking to Cianwood." He decided. Ben's cheery face fell into the perfect picture definition of the term 'crestfallen'.

"Oh," he said dejectedly.

"What's your problem?" Silver asked, noting that even Pichu seemed a little sad.

"Well, I have to go back to Almia, to Union Headquarters. To get my next mission." He looked sadly at Silver, who still didn't understand Ben's meaning and so remained irritated. Ben figured he'd have to spell it out for him. "Which is in the opposite direction. We won't be able to travel together anymore!" Ben wailed the last bit out so loud that Silver actually flinched a little, then cursed himself for showing a reaction.

"Oh, calm down," Silver told the now lightly-crying Ben. "It's…Arceus, just calm down." Ben continued crying. "Quit blubbering, you weakling!"

"H-Huh?" Ben whimpered, and sniffed mightily. "Wait, I know!" His eyes lit up, and he was once again the cheery ranger that he…usually was. "You want to take a break from training to learn how to not be angry, right?"

"No."

"Oh." Ben seemed to mull this over for a bit. "Well, you want to catch strong pokemon, right?"

"Yes," Silver said, slightly suspicious as to where Ben was going with this.

"Excellent! There are loads of strong pokemon in Almia- I'll take you there with me. It will be my thanks to you for helping me out," Ben said, smiling brightly and pulling out his styler, looking for a pokemon to fly them back to Almia. Somehow, a pidgeot was pecking at the ground not far away. This was pretty much always the case for rangers; whenever they needed a certain kind of pokemon, that kind was always conveniently close by.

We'll call it the Ranger's Law.

"Not a chance." Silver crossed his arms. If Ben thought he was dragging Silver all the way to some region way out in the boonies, he was dead wrong.

"Excellent! Let's go," Ben said as he ran over to his newly captured pidgeot and climbed on its back. He directed it to fly directly at Silver, thinking that Silver could simply reach up and grab on. Pidgeot, however, saw that this was clearly not going to happen, and so simply grabbed Silver in his taloned feet and took off.

One could observe the trio flying off into the distance from miles away; one could also hear Silver's cussing from about the same distance.

**A/N Fi~na~lly! It took wayyyy longer than I thought it would to get Silver to Almia. Thank the pokegods that Ben ignores logic, otherwise it would have been impossible.**

**Well, not really. Since I seem to be ignoring logic too.**

**Shout out to KizunaOtakuArashi for giving me the idea to have Ben drag Silver off as 'thanks'. She has a really funny story called _After Class_ that's a collection of one-shots revolving around Kincaid. She writes him quite well, I think, and much of the material is quite lulzy. You should check it out!**

**Also, this very same KizunaOtakuArashi has agreed to be my beta. All hail the beta of The Definition of Weakness! Big ol' thanks to her- I was really desperate for a beta.**

**Also…alarmingly few people understand that Kincaid isn't a 100% jerk. There were actually quite a few instances where I referenced that, but people still persisted in their one-sided view of him. I mean, yeah, he's like, a good 87% jerk. But not 100. I hope I made that glaringly obvious here.**

**Anyway, I have something vaguely important to say here. I mean, it's a total crack-fic, so I can't claim any real importance, but still. I had a pretty sizeable list of pranks to be pulled in the Ranger Academy in the name of Team School, but I'm going to have to do a bit of a time skip over nearly all of it in order to stop the fic from dragging, since nothing else but that will be happening. But wait! I was thinking of doing a little collection of one-shots for those interested in reading about those pranks. There would be no Silver, or any mention of the lad, just Mica, Keith, Kate, and Kellyn will be back by then. IF you are interested in such an idea, please say so in a review. If I don't get at least five people interested (five to represent all the people who will be too lazy to tell me) I'm probably not going to do it.**

**That's not a threat. That's just me not wanting to waste my time on something no one will read.**

**Long Auther's Note is long. Many apologies, dear reader.**

**Pip pip, cheerio!**


	19. A Failed Plan

"Okay! So over there you can see Puel Town, which is like Almia's version of Olivine City, I guess…"

"I hate you."

"And up north over there is Almia Castle, which is right by Shiver Camp. It's very well named, that Shiver Camp-"

"I hate you!"

"And way off in the distance over _there_ is Boyle Land. I personally love it there- it's my goal to become a base leader in Boyle Land-"

"I _hate _you!"

"That's the Ranger Union over there! Can you see it?"

"I. Hate. You."

"Oh-oh! And below us right now is the Ranger Academy. See?"

"I- wait, what?" Ben, Silver, Pichu and Pidgeot were currently soaring over Almia, with Ben happily pointing out all of the various landmarks to Silver, who was still caught in Pidgeot's talons. He hung there limply, seething over his predicament and the fact that Zubat was not fast enough to keep up with Pidgeot and battle it at the same time. However, flying over the Ranger Academy, something had caught his attention. "Why is the school for sale?"

"What're you talking about? The Ranger Academy can't be sold!"

"Tch! Idiot, look." Silver pointed at the school, swaying helplessly from side to side in time with Pidgeot's flapping wings. Ben bent over from his lofty position on Pidgeot's back and looked more closely at the school.

"Hey, you're right! We better go investigate." Ben directed Pidgeot down towards the school. Silver was excited both for the chance to rest his aching armpits (his jacket had been straining against them for the past hour) and for the chance to punch Ben in the face.

When they landed the first thing Ben noticed was a rather old man shuffling towards the sign with a ladder. The first thing Silver noticed was that both his arms had fallen asleep during the flight, and he couldn't move them. He'd have to settle for either kicking Ben or swinging his arm wildly at him and hoping that it hits.

Which one will he choose?

"Excuse me, sir?" Ben approached the janitor. "Could I ask you about- ah!" Ben fell to the ground, clasping the side that Silver had kicked.

"Don't ever try dragging me around ever again! You stupid brightly coloured freak!" Silver stomped the ground with the leg that he had raised to kick Ben with, not realizing how exceptionally lame he looked with his arms hanging at his sides.

"Eh-he-he-he! Saw the banner eh?" The janitor laughed throatily; whether it was at Ben's misfortune, Silver's lame pose or the banner he had been charged with removing was unknown. "Oh, them young'uns at that thar school sure do have imagination! Though all them _tee-shurs_ don't seem to likes it much. Least not ol' Stroppy."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Silver demanded, which sent the man into absolute hysterics, clutching at his side and spitting all over Silver and Ben. Pichu was nowhere to be seen.

"You…you hit me," Ben said weakly as he started to get up.

"Listen here you stupid old whack job." Silver absentmindedly pushed Ben over again in his haste to get to the janitor. He attempted to grab the man by the collar, but ended up simply swinging his arm ineffectively at him, inwardly wincing at the pins-and-needles sensation the movement brought on. He settled for looking enraged and violent. "I have been dragged by the neck across the damn ocean by some great dirty _pokemon_ and-"

"What's going on here?" An irritable voice snapped, and Silver looked up to see none other than Mr. Kincaid walking over from what appeared to be a tool shed. The unexpected familiar face stunned him for a moment.

"Eh-he-_he_! Ol' Stroppy." The janitor greeted him, making the 'l' sound nice and long. "These kids were just gonna ask 'bout that banner up thar. After they finished playin' fisticuffs, that is. Hoo-EE, has that red head got a swift kick. Bad posture though."

Kincaid addressed the wheezing janitor after taking a moment to process Silver's unexpected arrival. While his appearance was a shock, Kincaid was not a man to let such things ruffle him. "Mr. Babcock, if you could please attend to your janitorial duties, I will take care of these two." The janitor saluted Kincaid briefly before shuffling off with his ladder, still laughing to himself.

_Honestly, some people should just retire,_ Kincaid thought to himself as he watched the somewhat senile man leave. "Now, _you_," Kincaid snarled, turning his attention to Silver. His eyes drifted down to Ben, who was just now sitting up in a cross legged position. "I don't believe I know you, Ranger…?"

"B-Ben." Ben said, shaking his head and slowly regaining his enthusiasm. "Pokemon Ranger Ben! Here to inquire about the apparent retail status of the Ranger Academy." Ben pointed unnecessarily at the massive banner hanging over the school.

"It's being dealt with!" Kincaid snapped, irritated that someone had noticed the sign. "And there's no question in my mind as to what _you're_ here for." He rounded on Silver, whose arms had now began tingling in earnest as blood flowed through them again.

"Oh yeah?" Silver swaggered and took a defensive stance, managing to keep his arms stiffer. "And what's that, _ol' Stroppy_?"

_Perhaps he knows what a pounding Mica will get for abandoning- for being so weak!_ He thought, carefully redirecting his thought before it careened into unknown and dangerous waters.

"You," Kincaid began dramatically, pointing a finger at Silver, "think you can just saunter into the school and kidnap my daughter!"

"That's exactly what I'm here to do!" Silver yelled, grasping at the first excuse presented to him that explained his presence in Almia and sounded better than being dragged there by a half-crazy ranger. "And then I'm going to beat the crap out of her!

"You make a terrible criminal," Kincaid hissed, hiding his pride in besting Silver with his own criminal prowess. "Honestly, you've outright shouted your plans. What do you mean you're going to beat her?" _Surely he can't be speaking literally…_

"I mean I am going to take my fist," Silver held up a clenched (and still tingling) fist, "and beat it _into her face_."

"Uncouth child!" Kincaid snapped, still not believing that Silver was actually being serious. "I'll have you thrown _off_ the grounds and _into_ jail!"

"Ha!" Silver shouted, a bit dementedly. Had Ben been quicker on the uptake, he might have noticed that Silver seemed to be starting to crack under the stress of so many oddities happening so close together. "Try and stop me!" Silver then charged into the school, shoving the door open so hard that it smashed against the inner wall.

"Hey, wait for me," Ben called, running after Silver.

"Stop, stop!" Kincaid was on the verge of screaming now. "NO RUNNING IN THE HALLS!"

* * *

"So, basically, what the Double Slit test showed, was that electrons actually behave totally differently when they are being observed." Isaac was finishing explaining to Mica about what he believed to be one of the most fascinating aspects of physics.

"That is completely unbelievable!" Mica exclaimed, completely enthralled. "Are you sure you're not making this up?"

"Definitely!" Isaac said, his excitement fuelled by Mica's enthusiasm. "I'm telling you, no matter how long this guy watched those electrons, they acted like particles. But as soon as he left," he started making large, swaying motions with his hands, "the readout said they were acting like waves!"

"I have no idea what I'm supposed to think of that!"

"No one does!" Isaac said, sounding quite cheerful about it. There was a few seconds of silence, as both teens pondered that awkward moment when you run out of things to say about a topic, and have been given no segue into a new topic. Mica's eyes drifted down to Horatio and Zefyre, and noted with interest that they were both looking towards the library door with confused expressions.

"Hey, you two. What's up?" Mica asked them. Horatio drew his eyebrows (or the muscles below where his eyebrows would be) together.

"_I…don't know_," he said slowly.

"Huh?"

"_I think_," Zefyre turned to her, "_that Silver is running in the halls_."

The mention of her rival confused Mica. Very much, in fact. Though she didn't want to doubt Zefyre's assessment, she was also very tempted to ask him what the heck he was talking about. Because, of course, there was no way that Silver would somehow make his way over to Almia, of all places. She also felt a little concerned, given her last encounter with Silver had not exactly been friendly. Though in addition to the concern, there was also a certain kind of mixed excitement, that Silver's appearance meant more than one good thing. Mica could identify one of these good things as getting a chance to have a re-match and settle their tie, but she couldn't figure out any other reason to be excited to see Silver. Her stomach clenched, her brow puckered, her hands fluttered uselessly in the air, and she attempted to express everything she was feeling at once, which came out as a profound,

"Guh?"

Just after she said that, the library door burst open, drawing everyone's attention. Isaac was growing increasingly alarmed; he and Mica had been having a very exciting conversation about physics, then all of a sudden Mica had talked to her pokemon, made some weird noises and got scared. And now, he realized as he looked across the library, a rather deranged looking redhead who was very clearly _not_ a student had appeared in the doorway and was stomping his way over to them. A lifetime of nerdiness had given Isaac the ability to clearly recognize the common physical signs that a person had when about to beat someone up (usually that someone being him). This redhead was showing every single one of these signs, so Isaac pulled a hardcover book in front of his chest for protection, ready to raise it to his face if need be.

Silver, however, was not focused on the blond with a bowl cut. His attention was completely on Mica, who looked scared and disoriented. He was pretty disoriented himself; he had barged into three classrooms and the staff room on his quest to find Mica, all the while evading a stubbornly walking teacher who was screaming at him to stop. He had nearly been cornered by the man before Ben said cheerily 'you got to see the library while you're here- it's awesome!' and pointed Silver towards a door, which Silver then barged through. He realized that he'd have to kick Mica's ass quickly, before Ben or Kincaid interrupted him. Or in case Pichu showed up- though it was entirely possible that Pichu would lend Silver a hand. He made his way across the library, with Ben following behind him saying 'Oh, Silver, I've never seen you so excited!' Silver made another note to kick Ben again for his latest poor choice of words.

Horatio revved up the flames on his head and back in reaction to the advancing Silver while Zefyre simply tried to hide behind Mica's leg. Isaac looked like he might want to join the little lizard.

"YOU!" Silver shouted, reaching Mica but not being able to get in her face like he wanted. Horatio was standing between them, threatening to scorch Silver if he got too close. "You- you…YOU'RE STUPID."

"Why does everybody keep saying that?" Mica bawled. "I am not!"

"Yes, you are." Silver retorted. "What other reason is there for you coming to this _dump_ and leaving me alone in Johto?" Silver regretted his words as soon as they were out of his mouth; they sounded so _weak_.

"Alone?" _But he has his team_, Mica thought.

"Nooooo." Ben butted in. "He has me."

"And who are you?" Mica asked, curious.

"Fine. You left with your dumbass father and left me to deal with this freak and his demented pichu!"

"_Who are you calling demented_?" Pichu shouted unexpectedly from a crack between two books. There was a hole behind the bookshelf that small pokemon had been using to get into the school for years.

"Watch your mouth, boy," Kincaid yelled from across the library, having just entered. He seethed with rage at seeing that not only had Silver gotten so close to Mica, but his daughter again had her pokemon out. In the library no less. He marched over to the group and grabbed Silver by the collar while Silver just sneered in his face. "You're fate will be whispered by mothers in dark places to frighten their young." He hissed at the same time Pichu yelled '_get 'im, gang_!' and jumped down from the bookshelf and no less than six other pichu followed after, all leaping at Silver.

"Holy Toledo!" Mica yelled. "What the heck is going on?"

"Oh, I can explain that," Ben said helpfully. "When I first found Pichu, he was the ringleader of a little gaggle of other pichu. Except he had a ukulele, so he's always been very persuasive."

"That doesn't explain anything!" Mica blasted, which confused Ben. He thought it explained enough. Meanwhile the pichu had clamped on to Silver's jacket and were feeding him the highest voltage of electricity they could manage. Which was just enough to slightly annoy him as Kincaid tried to drag him out of the school, presumably to perform cruel and imaginative tortures on him. A group of students had formed at the library door, attracted by all the shouting. Though clearly confused, they were cheering on Silver and the pichu gang. And occasionally Isaac.

"Whoo-hoo! C'mon Horatio, torch him!" Keith yelled from the centre of the group. Horatio took his advice to heart and blasted his best Ember at Silver, which effectively knocked out the pichu gang and burnt Silver enough to allow Kincaid to drag him out of the library.

"Detention for each and every one of you." Kincaid snarled as he made his way through the students. There was the sound of Silver being dragged off, still too hurt to resist, and then there was silence from all as they reflected on what had just happened.

"Buddy," Keith finally said to Horatio. "I meant torch _Kincaid_." Horatio simply shrugged- Kincaid hadn't been the threat to Mica in his eyes.

"Who _was_ that?" A younger student asked in an awed voice.

"That," Mica began, "was the man who has sworn to destroy all those who stand in his way. He is the one who will remain standing when everyone else has fallen. He promises to be the strongest of them all; they say he has not a heart or soul, but is instead fuelled by the fury of the legions of those who attempted to dye their hair red, but the colour came out…unnatural…dead looking…fake. He is the one true redhead. In this life, he goes by the name…of Silver. And he is my rival."

"Cor," said Keith. "What does he want, oh Wise One?"

Mica thought for a second, completely unable to think of a lie for Silver's presence. "That is not for mortals to ask."

"He wants to kidnap Mica," Ben said cheerfully, remembering Kincaid's earlier accusation.

And indeed, for once Ben was right on the money. Silver would not stand for being humiliated and dragged around twice in one day. His goal became showing Kincaid that he was superior by stealing his daughter out from under his nose.

And he would not fail twice.

* * *

**A/N Such a long wait…for such a short chapter. I would apologize but…I doubt it will make any kind of difference. Besides, we got to meet a man who I think might be Petrel's brother. Speaking of which- I'm replaying SoulSilver right now…I never realized that Petrel ran into the wall on his way out in the Mahogany hideout. I love that guy…**

**Anyway…Mica and Silver meet again! About time, eh? Also, I thought my version of ukulele Pichu was completely OOC…replaying PRGS…not so much. That Pichu is nuts.**

**Not much to say…writer's block is a b****. **

**Thank you, my DARLING beta! KizunaOtakuArashi is the best!**


	20. Charge!

"Pichu?" Silence. "Silver?" More silence. "…Summer?" If silence was literally golden, Ben would be rich. He was walking through the forest that led from the Ranger Academy to Vien town, completely alone. After Silver had been dragged off by Mr. Kincaid Pichu had once again disappeared, and Ben figured he should find the little mouse before picking up Silver and showing him all around the Ranger Union. He was walking slowly and listening with all his might. He knew of Pichu's fondness for jumping out at him and scaring him, so he was cleverly putting his back to some likely hiding spots in hopes of luring Pichu out.

He had been searching for about five minutes when a sound met his ears. It was the steady beating of hooves, and it was getting closer. He readied his capture styler, preparing for a wild ponyta. It was about ten seconds later when, snorting like crazy and a Pichu on his back, a wild tauros came bursting through the foliage. Spotting Ben's bright red uniform, he started to charge straight at the teen.

He was a massive beast, much larger than the regular tauros. He had to be five feet at the withers, and looked to be about two hundred and twenty pounds of sheer brute force. His horns were covered in battle scars and his whip tails were working like mad, snapping at his flank like angry snakes. His coat was lustrous and glossy, the black mane full and dark and changed smoothly into the tan colour of the rest of his coat. His snorts came out is bursts, and his hot breath turned to steam in the air. His muscles rippled across his chest as he put everything he had into his charge. Clearly, this was a tauros that ranked highly in whatever herd he belonged to. Ben didn't have a prayer.

"_Not him_!" Pichu counselled. "_He's my buddy_." The tauros, while seeming to want to follow Pichu's order, was already charging, and unable to change his course by that point beyond the slight slowing of his gallop. However, Ben was a highly trained and skilled ranger and, seeing Pichu on Tauros's back, considered doing an epic leap onto the bull's back mid-charge. Then he decided against it, seeing how Tauros was quite a big pokemon, and he didn't think that jumping on his back was a smart risk to take. So he simply threw himself into the nearby bushes in his haste to get out of the way.

"Hey, wait!" Ben yelled as he realized what direction the retreating tauros was heading in. "You can't go back to the school! Tauros aren't authorized educational pokemon." Still holding his readied capture styler, Ben began chasing after the two.

* * *

"Young man." Principle Lamont began, trying to look stern and disciplinary. This really wasn't his forte and Silver could easily sense it; he glared back at the old man. "Trespassing on school grounds is bad enough, but the fact that you attempted to physically assault one of my stu-" _She's not actually a student here_, Lamont had to remind himself- "one of the young people who reside here does not speak well of your character."

"Humph. You think I care what you think about my character, _sir_?" Silver sneered. "Weaklings are always going on about _character_. I hate weak people, and I hate to hear them whine about character, or heart, or compassion. I don't care about those things. I only care about strong things."

"Yes, you've made that perfectly clear," Lamont said, a trace of real irritability in his voice. While being dragged to the office, Silver had been shouting at Kincaid and anyone within earshot about how they were all weak idiots, and he hated the weak and only cared about strength. As he was using all of his strength to resist being dragged to the office, the trip had taken quite a long time, and both Lamont and Kincaid would have been happy never to hear the words 'weakness' or 'idiots' again. Especially when applied to them.

"So let me go!" Silver snapped, apparently unaware to see why Lamont was still lecturing him. He would have ran out himself, but Kincaid was standing in front of the door, and Silver had a funny feeling that if he tried to use his pokemon to get free he would end up front page news. As any criminal running from the law would agree, media attention was the last thing he needed.

"It's not that simple, boy. You need to understand the consequences of your actions. You probably terrified poor Miss Kincaid." Lamont paused for a second, and Silver assumed he was gearing himself up for a lecture on how he ought to care for Mica's feelings. Well, he did care for Mica's feelings. That was why he was trying to scare her- he wanted her to feel fear. Beyond that though, he wanted her to know what it felt like to be truly alone, with no one to protect you should danger come. This thought sprung up so suddenly it took Silver by surprise, before he grimly decided that it was true.

Funnily enough, Lamont had actually paused to reflect on how wrong the phrase 'Miss Kincaid' had sounded. He hadn't stopped associating 'Kincaid' with the man standing in the room with him, and his mind was now assaulting him with images of Mr. Kincaid with a feminine figure and wearing a frilly dress. It was a slightly disturbing image. Thankfully, he was interrupted by the sound of screaming coming from the grounds. Concerned, he went over to the window, followed by an irritated Mr. Kincaid.

"Oh, dear," Lamont said.

"What fresh hell?" Was Kincaid's choice of words; he justified the use of swear words since he was quoting famous literature. Below them, in the grounds, a tauros was running around, tearing up the grass and charging any nearby bidoof that happened to catch his notice. Both of them were so preoccupied with this sight that they didn't notice Silver sneaking out of the office to go check out the source of the commotion for himself.

He reached the first floor only to find Mica and the boy who had encouraged Horatio heading for the grounds as well.

"Tch. Hey, weakling!" Silver called. Mica turned around to see Silver stomping down the stairs towards her and Keith. She still wasn't quite sure how to react to him, and responded with yet another of her eloquent 'guh's.

"What's going on?" Silver demanded.

"Ummm…" _Why are you acting so stupid?_ She questioned herself.

"Hey, if it isn't the One True Redhead. As a fellow ginger, I feel I have much to learn," Keith said. "Want to apologize about getting Horatio to smoke you- I meant for him to torch Kincaid…" Keith trailed off as Silver glared at him. He realized Mica had not been exaggerating in her speech. "No idea what's going on," he said shortly. "Going to check it out."

"Hmph." Was Silver's only reaction. He caught up to the two and fell into step beside Mica, leaving a little more distance between him and her than was between Keith and Mica. The three of them walked out the front doors, and saw the tauros making a mess of the grounds and decimating the bidoof population. Not by killing them- just scaring the living shit out of them, which would lead them to relocating to less tauros inhabited lands.

"Holy crap!" Mica yelled. Silver and Keith were too stunned to say anything. "He-he…" She went on, a slight tremble in her voice as she struggled for words.

"Don't worry," Keith consoled her, pulling out his school-issue capture styler, "I'll protect-"

"He's beautiful!" She finished, watching in awe as Tauros flung dirt everywhere and whipped himself in the back with his three tails. "Look at that grace and _power_!"

"Freak!" Silver snapped. "It's a stupid dangerous brute."

"You're both wrong!" Keith said, drawing himself up. "What it is…is a pokemon in need of capturing! Capture on!" He declared whipping his styler out and sending the disc flying in a graceful arc towards Tauros. It left a glowing blue trail behind it, which was excess calm waves leaking out at the tip. The idea behind circling a pokemon with the capture disc was to have these waves hitting it from every side possible to maximize the frequency of the calm waves.

Tauros took one look at the spinning top of love and crushed it under his hoof. Noticing where the disc had came from, Tauros began charging the three targets that were much more substantial than bidoof.

"Ack. Oops," Keith said, holding the useless styler in his hand.

"Way to go genius." Silver hissed, then thought of Ben. "Rangers are idiots!" He snapped before taking off around the edge of the grounds. Keith did the same thing, heading in the other direction. Mica readied Biv's pokeball.

"I must have him!" She decided. "Biv! Iron Defence!" She threw out the clampearl's pokeball and watched hopefully as Biv braced herself.

_This isn't going to end well_, Biv thought to herself. _We haven't been training much…my condition will probably become very transparent._

Tauros, pleased at having an actual opponent, put everything he had into his charge. He put his head down and caught Biv with his right horn just above where the crack for the opening was. Biv went flying backwards towards Mica, nearly missing hitting her in the head. Something small did hit her in the face, and Mica assumed a pebble had been kicked up.

_Well, that didn't go well_, Mica thought, turning to see how badly damaged Biv was. Tauros was happily waiting to be given his next target, positive he had eradicated the clampearl. And so he had; Biv was laying a few feet from Mica, shell lolling open. _I swear her defence has gotten even worse since the last time we trained._

She looked down at the ground and saw something small and blue, a bit bigger than a dollar coin. Though Tauros was tossing his head impatiently, she bent over and picked it up.

It was a chunk of Biv's shell.

"You moron!" Silver yelled, having doubled back for her. "Run!" He caught a stunned Mica by the wrist and forced her into running with him just as Tauros began charging again. Mica gained enough of her senses to recall Biv to her pokeball. Though running wasn't going to do much good- Tauros was much faster than Mica and Silver, and the two were running in a straight line, which was a plus for him.

"Pichu!" Ben yelled, having finally reached the school. "Stop Tauros!" And then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Pichu popped out of Tauros's mane, scrambled over to his head and whispered something into his ear. Again, Tauros couldn't stop his charge, but he managed to divert it to a nearby tree on Pichu's orders. A couple caterpies fell out of it.

"Perfect. Now, capture on!" Unlike Keith, Ben was a highly trained pokemon ranger, even though he may not act like it. His reflexes were far superior, and he had a more durable styler. He had captured and calmed Tauros in a matter of minutes. Once he was done, Pichu hopped down from his back and rejoined Ben. Tauros began calmly grazing, as if nothing of interest had just happened. He seemed utterly unperturbed by the fact that he was so far from his herd. He had never really gotten along with the rest of the tauros anyway. It'd be a strange thing if tauros got along.

"You absolute freaking idiot!" Silver blasted, rounding on Mica. "Why would you send out your weakest pokemon against him? Not that it would have made much of a difference, considering _your_ team."

"I didn't think Biv was so…" Mica muttered, trailing off as she noticed Tauros had raised his massive head to look at her. It wasn't often someone held their ground when he was charging them, and he had been impressed with her, though he didn't know it was simply shock that had held Mica in place after Biv had been injured. "You want a real battle?" Mica asked Tauros, seeing a challenging gleam in his eye. Tauros snorted and pawed the ground. "Alright then. Horatio, let's go."

The small quilava appeared, shaking his body and, noticing his new opponent, revving up his flames. Tauros eyed him suspiciously, but held his ground. Mica realized she would be making the first move. "Alright Horatio, let's start with Quick Attack." Horatio, though doubting the wisdom of this move against a foe so much bigger than him, complied and rushed Tauros. Tauros matched his Quick Attack with a Tackle and easily over powered Horatio.

"Hmph. Weak." Silver commented.

"Shut up." Mica whined. "Horatio, let's use Flame Wheel instead." Feeling a bit more comfortable with this, Horatio sheathed himself in fire and spun at Tauros. Unexpectedly, Tauros let out a squeal* and shied out of Horatio's way. "Huh? Well, let's try Ember." Horatio shot out little fireballs at Tauros, again causing him to stumble ungracefully away instead of meeting the attack. However, he wasn't as successful this time, and ended up getting slightly scorched legs.

"_Hey, Mica_," Horatio said, turning to his trainer. "_I think he's afraid of fire._"

"I think you're right, my dear lad!" Mica agreed. "Flame Wheel again!" Horatio again spun at Tauros sheathed in flames, and managed to hit him dead on this time, thanks to tauros's injured legs. "Again!" Mica said, getting excited with the stimulation of having a real battle for the first time in what felt like forever. Tauros managed to dodge Horatio by lurching ungracefully to the side. He then threw his head up, irritated at his own shyness, and charged at Horatio, knocking him back a few feet.

"Tch, idiot. You can't keep doing the same thing!" Silver snapped, startling Mica.

"Uhhh, right. Horatio, let's go with Ember," Mica said. Horatio blasted more fire balls at Tauros, who again managed to dodge. He proceeded to charge at Horatio, who jumped out of the way of his straight tackle.

_Well, I guess he's nothing if not predictable_, Horatio thought. Mica seemed to have noticed the same thing.

"Smokescreen Horatio!" Horatio obediently started spewing black smoke out of the fire on his body, blanketing the battle field. Tauros snorted in irritation, spinning on his haunches and trying to see. "Excellent! Now let's wear him down; use Ember to get him to charge!" Horatio shot his flames through the smoke at Tauros, glancing off his flank and causing Tauros to spin towards the source. He rushed in the direction the flames had come from, only to find that Horatio had moved out of the way in time. He was hit again from the side, and again rushed to where he thought Horatio was. And again, he found the spot vacant. This routine continued until finally, the smoke clearing and Tauros huffing, the massive Wild Bull pokemon pitched forward onto his front knees. Mica, elated, promptly prepared to throw an empty pokeball at him. And then realized that she no longer carried her trainer's backpack with her, which held all her empty pokeballs.

"Ack," she said as she realized this. "Shit!"

"Tch, here." Silver pushed one of his own empty pokeballs into Mica's hands. "Catch that thing before it gets up and starts rampaging again!"

"Th-thanks." Mica stuttered, surprised by this random act of kindness. She threw the pokeball at Tauros, sucking him inside it and watched anxiously as the pokeball shook with the effort of keeping him inside. Eventually, it stopped moving and let of a little flash to communicate a successful catch. "Awwwww_right_! I gots me a- hey, where are you going?" Mica cut herself off, noticing that Silver had just spun around and left.

_I'd better leave before Mica's idiot father and his idiot boss come and find me_, he thought. _But I'm definitely coming back to beat up Mica!_

_Strange boy, where are you going?_ Mica turned to Horatio and, after promising a lavish reward, asked him to take Biv's pokeball and head up to see Janice, thinking that she would be able to heal both of them. Horatio agreed and tottered up to the school, joined by a shell-shocked Keith.

* * *

"Silver," Mica said, catching up to the redhead. "Ben said…something, after you were dragged off that caught my attention."

"Hmph. He's an idiot. Ben's not worth even _your_ attention."

_So mean!_ She thought. Out loud, she said "Well, why did you come to Almia then?"

"It wasn't my choice," he said sharply.

"Well, why'd you come and find me when you got here then?"

"Because I…" It was now, when he had the perfect chance, with no one watching, that Silver realized he wouldn't have been able to physically harm Mica even if he was given the chance. "Well, what the hell else was I supposed to do in a hick place like this?"

"You haven't forgotten me."

"Tch! Don't think you're special, weakling. I-I just want to make sure that I get my rematch with you." Silver could have kicked himself for stuttering.

"Right," Mica said, looking at the conflicted boy and trying to analyze her own clashing emotions. Her stomach fluttered, her cheeks seemed to be a little warm and eyes pricked as if there were tears behind them. She couldn't figure out what her body was trying to tell her about how she was feeling- they didn't seem to be good messages- but she realized she liked being with Silver in this moment. His rudeness seemed less personal, and the undercurrent of discomfort in his voice was oddly endearing. "Well, anyway. Thanks for stopping Tauros from impaling me." Silver turned to look at her, and she realized for once he was respecting her personal space. As she thought this, almost without thinking she lurched ungracefully forward and embraced Silver in an awkward hug. After all, he had saved her life, and that required her to show some pretty deep gratitude. A hug, she thought, would probably suffice.

Unsure of why this was happening, Silver awkwardly placed his arms around Mica, not wanting to push her off. The hug felt nice. More than nice; it was the most physical contact Silver had received in a very long time, and he was slightly overwhelmed. He could hear Mica's breathing, feel her warmth, and her face- it was so close to his! And even beyond that, he liked the feeling of her body against his. She was soft and light, and he could feel her slight curves when she was against him like that. He felt his face heat up and his arms tighten around her of their own accord. He realized she was leaning against him, and decided he liked that too- it made him feel stronger, for some reason. He closed his eyes and leaned his head slightly down. He could smell her. She smelled like…soap, he decided. Various kinds of soap. The shampoo that she used in her hair, the kind that she used to cleanse her face, and the kind that she used to clean her body all came together to form a rather pleasant smell. Though it was stupid and weak and despicable, Silver found he didn't want the moment to end. He'd find the time to hate himself for it later. For now, he'd just enjoy it.

It was a fairly sustained hug, as far as these things go. Mica thought she could guess that Silver wasn't about to let go (which pleased her) so she broke the hug herself, knowing that she'd have to get back soon. She took a small step back, and found his face very close to hers. Dangerously close- she didn't entirely trust herself to be that close to him, seeing how her body had betrayed her a few times already.

"Thanks," she said again, quietly. Then louder, "I'll train Tauros up a bit, then we'll have that rematch, right?" Silver just nodded silently, still a little overwhelmed. Mica nodded too, then said, "Alright. Well…see you," and headed back up to the school.

* * *

**A/N Calm waves. Like Rage waves, but calm. As far as the anime goes, the red gyardos episode was pretty epic. And had Lance, which is a plus.**

**Mah beta's gonna kill me. I posted this chapter without shooting it over to her first. I just couldn't wait to post it! So much has happened- finally, some romantic growth! Don't worry KizunaOtakuArashi- you'll get your own copy to mark up.**

**Also, a shout-out to RYNO IV for motivating me and helping me work through some stuff :)**

* * *

***I had a really hard time decided whether or not a tauros would squeal. I mean, I know bulls do a sort of shrieking-squealing-roaring thing (I am not a cow person, so I don't know what this sound is called). But I thought maybe in poke-verse, the amount of sounds made by pokemon are cut down since they have a language to communicate with instead. AND THEN! I took a nerdily close look at a picture of a tauros…and realized it had equine hooves! Not the cleft hoof of a cow, but the single hoof of a horse. Therefore, by that logic, tauros are actually equines, not bovine. And I AM a horse person, so I can say with authority that squealing is too common a thing with horses to be cut out, even in poke-verse. And girrafarig (spelling?) are indeed bovine. Just look at that hoof :P**

**And then do you know what happened? I looked at bulbapedia, and realized they had noticed this first. I still demand credit for my astute observation!**


	21. Hey, You Okay?

_Hugs…_

Silver trudged through the forest, preoccupied with his internal dilemma. He wasn't entirely sure where he stood on the whole issue of 'hugs'. They seemed utterly pointless and weak- no one gained anything by participating in a hug, and they were only done by softies who believed in _loving_ one another. Ugh. Yet the facts remained what they were. Silver thought it might be helpful to sort out his current dilemma by listing these facts.

_Fact #1: A hug involves two people wrapping their arms around each other for a bit._

_Fact #2: Hugs are stupid and weak and overly emotional._

_Fact #3: Mica had hugged him. _

_Fact #4: He hadn't shoved, smacked, kicked, or cussed out the girl for doing so._

_Fact #5: Mica had hugged him for no apparent reason, and offered no explanation for her action._

_Fact #6: Mica was possibly faintly insane. She was also his rival._

"This is stupid," he muttered to himself. He shoved his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders, still trying to create a rational explanation for what had happened. After a while he stopped and, deciding that he didn't want to run into anybody while walking on the path, clambered up into a nearby tree to sulk on one of the middle branches.

Now, Silver's mind was a deep and fathomless place. He considered it a place of such cold hard logic that Silver himself could occasionally not follow what his mind was telling him. It was his pride, his essential tool of survival, his source of internal strength. And after about twenty minutes of serious brainstorming it gave him two possibilities for why Mica had embraced him.

_Okay…_ he thought, trying to pull the leftover mess from his brainstorm together. _So…either Mica was trying to screw with my head by acting just as illogical as always, but with a new twist, or…_

_Or she's dumber and crazier than I thought and has developed some kind of weird affection for me. _

This second option disturbed Silver slightly, and he took a moment to ponder it.

_Well…Mica _is_ a girl. Isn't that something girls are known for? Being all affectionate and loving and motherly and such. I wonder if my mother was like that…_ Silver shook his head, focusing on the problem at hand before his mind drifted off into one if the many danger zones that were in his head. _Mica does have that stupid 'let's love pokemon and be weak together!' attitude. And she's pretty ditzy…that's another girly trait. Probably._

Silver watched a leaf flutter down from a branch above, twisting and spinning as it went. It looked rather chewed on, and soon a few more leaves followed it. Silver looked up, and noticed for the first time that he was being carefully watched by a weedle perched higher up in the tree.

"What are you looking at?" Silver snapped. The weedle promptly went back for searching for the perfect leaf, something that consumed his entire waking moments. Silver fell back into his ponder, trying to remember what he had been thinking about before.

_Right…Mica's girliness._ He tried to think of other traits that he knew Mica possessed that proved her weak and girly nature. And then, unexpectedly and totally unasked for, he was reminded of the smell of soap that lingered on Mica's skin.

His mind assaulted him with images of how Mica acquired that scent by _using_ that soap, every morning. In the shower. Most likely naked.

Well, it was definitely a 'girly' image. Or feminine, at least. Not to mention very distracting.

It was another ten minutes before Silver was interrupted from his thoughts by Ben, who was yelling "Silver!" over and over for all to hear.

_Ack_. Silver jerked himself out of his contemplation, trying to remember what led him to such thoughts. It had something to do with Mica and girliness. Hugging also seemed to have led to something.

_Girls are weaklings!_ Was his last irritated thought before he jumped out of the tree and landed about five feet from Ben, who jumped a little bit and then cracked a huge grin.

"There you are!" Ben greeted him happily. Pichu was sitting on Ben's shoulder, leaning against his head and lazily strumming on his ukulele. Silver could almost see him chewing on a piece of straw as he did so. "Hey, you okay? You look all weird and red-faced."

"I'm fine," Silver snapped, quickly shoving his hands in his pockets.

"Okay!" Ben chirped, unfazed by Silver's odd behaviour. Most of Silver's behaviour was odd anyway. "C'mon, I need to show you the Union."

Silver was expecting him to grab his arm and rush off, and was already preparing a string of curses and a fist for such a scenario. However, Ben simply walked purposefully ahead, assuming that Silver would follow. After all, what else did he have to do? The only way to get back to Johto was by boat, and he'd have to visit Pueltown to do so. Which was on the way to the Union, so for now there really was nothing Silver could do but either wait where he was or follow.

Ben would never broach the subject, and Silver would never admit it out loud, but if it was possible to pit brains against one another in a battle of logic, Ben's would wipe the floor with Silver's. As anyone who had followed the two boys' previous thought lines could attest to.

So Silver simply scowled and followed, trying very hard not to remember what his- rather illogical- thoughts had been moments before.

* * *

"Honey, I'm afraid I have some bad news," Janice told Mica as she greeted Horatio and started dishing out his reward. A while before, after she had left Silver, Mica had meandered slowly up to the school. The first thing she did when she arrived was quickly dodge out of sight of her father, who was deep in conversation with Principle Lamont. Apparently, they hadn't realized the whole tauros ordeal had been taken care of.

The second thing she did was gather up as much pokemon-friendly sweets as she could and headed up to see Biv and Horatio, planning on giving them a nice little sweets feast for their hard work.

Her plan had half worked out. Horatio was currently sitting on the floor, a small band-aid on his head and stuffing his face with the treats. Biv, however, was still sitting on the paper-covered medical bed, with Janice and the school nurse beside her. She hadn't regained consciousness, and Mica could see the chip in her shell where Tauros had caught her.

"Bad news?" Mica asked nervously, her eyes darting between the worried face of Janice, the stern face of the school nurse, and her own fainted pokemon.

"You're going to have to take this clampearl to the hospital," the nurse told her briskly. "Her condition is very poor, and her shell is much too brittle for the level you claim she's at."

Mica could hear a faint accusation in the nurse's words, and it irritated her. "I wasn't lying about her level," she said, a touch angrily. "We trained loads back in Johto, and she helped me take down a gym leader's scyther." She didn't mention that Biv had been knocked out in the process. The point was she had participated in the battle and not chipped her shell or been all that hurt, really.

"That may be true," the nurse said, and cut off Mica as she opened her mouth to say that it _was_ true, "but do you realize how hard a clampearl's shell is? It's their main point of protection, and it should have been _much_ more resistant after using Iron Defence. Breaking the shell should have been near impossible, especially with a single tackle. She hasn't been nourished properly, and now she's hurt because of it. There's something seriously wrong with this clampearl. You need to take her to the hospital."

"She's right, sweetie," Janice told her quietly. "The most Biv should have gotten from that was a scratch. I suggest you leave now- I'll explain to your father why you left."

Mica nodded silently and returned Biv to her pokeball. Janice gave her directions to the hospital in Pueltown, which was about a twenty minute bus ride away from Vientown. Mica nodded mutely, not bothering to point out that she already knew where the hospital was, and how to get to Vientown. She beckoned for Horatio, who had paused in his little feast to listen, to follow her as she left. She made it about halfway across the grounds before the tears started coming. She was ten feet from the front gates when quiet sobs wracked her body.

"Lavaaa," Horatio said, reaching up to try and comfort her. She bent down and scooped the pokemon into her arms, despite his awkward size. She cradled him into her chest as he tried to comfort her by nuzzling her neck and stroking her face.

The images of Biv laying unconscious on the bed, of the nurse's accusatory face, and of her pokemon getting rammed head on by tauros after she sent her into battle kept flashing in her mind. Silver was right- she shouldn't have sent Biv out to battle Tauros, she should've trained more, she should've paid more attention to her pokemon's condition…

She shouldn't have let her pokemon get so hurt. That was the bottom line. But she had. She had failed Biv as a trainer, and now she would likely be spending another night in the hospital, though not as the patient this time. She would have to face the wrath of her father when she got back and he found out that not only had she left without his permission, but she had captured that destructive tauros that had torn up the grounds.

A leaf fluttered down and landed on her head. She swiped it away without thinking, assuming that it had simply fallen off its tree. She didn't realize that a busy weedle had noticed the crying girl, and tried to offer her a form of comfort. It wasn't the perfect leaf that he had been searching for, but it was pretty dang nice. Much higher quality than most leaves. As such, he was a little hurt that she had simply wiped it away without so much as a second glance. The redhead boy from earlier had also snapped at him, startling little weedle and breaking his focus. He had only just got it back when the girl had passed by underneath. Humans were mean.

When she was about ten minutes away from Vientown she started to try and get her crying under control. Her arms were getting tired, so she put Horatio down and wiped her eyes, taking a few shaky breaths. Her eyes were still slightly rimmed with red when she arrived, but it would have to do.

Mica found the bus station and sat down to wait, stroking Horatio as she did so. It didn't take long for the bus to rumble up, so she returned Horatio to his pokeball and hopped on board, absentmindedly paying the bus fare. She realized as she dug for the coins that she still had the chunk of Biv's shell in her pocket.

_Maybe they'll be able to glue it on somehow_, she thought mildly. That would be the most convenient thing. Just glue the piece back on… tell Mica that it was a freak accident, that the nurse at the school was wrong, Biv's condition was fine. Must've been a really powerful tauros…

Though she knew it was highly unlikely it was a comforting thought. So she pretended like everything was fine, that when she got back she could blame the nurse for her disappearance…promise her father that she could easily tame the tauros. It would be fine. Everything would work out perfectly, just this one time.

It wasn't a very long bus ride- traffic was light, seeing as it was the middle of the day, and the trip only took fifteen minutes instead of the twenty that Janice had promised. She got off the bus and started wandering through the tidy streets of Pueltown towards the hospital.

She was so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she didn't even notice a certain classmate wandering along the street and heading towards her. He, however, noticed her.

"Mica?" Kellyn called out, surprised to see the girl. She looked up, startled, and managed a small smile and a wave in greeting. "Wow, did the Academy get so boring without me that you felt the need to run away?" He teased lightly as he got closer.

"Ha ha. Yup. That's it. What are you doing here?" She asked, trying to hide any quaver in her voice.

"My family just moved to Almia, and I was going to meet them at the docks before I headed back to school- this was the last day of my suspension."

"Oh yeah? Cool." She replied, praying that he wouldn't ask for her reason to be in Pueltown.

"Yeah, but their boat is late, so they won't be here till tomorrow…hey, you okay?" He asked, noticing for the first time the red rims around her eyes.

_Damn it_, she thought, knowing that as soon as he drew attention to her state, she would start bawling all over again.

"Biv is hurt. I'm taking her to the hospital," she said shortly, feeling the tears sting up in her eyes again. She looked straight ahead, and felt a strong desire to punch Kellyn as he fell in step beside her. That was not helping the whole 'let's not lose control in the middle of the street' plan.

"Oh," he replied shortly, wondering what he should be doing. He thought of Keith, and how he was always so casual and maintained physical contact in some small way when talking to girls. He hesitantly put his arm around Mica's shoulders. "What happened?"

Mica took a deep breath- the crying was coming again, she could feel it- and explained in a shaky voice about Tauros and Biv and how the nurse was a _big fat meanie _to her.

"But I _did _train her lots in Johto," Mica said between sobs. She had worked herself up into another crying jag, just like she knew she would. "She was real-ly st-strong…" she said, wailing slightly at the end. Though Mica couldn't see Kellyn's face, a passerby would have been very entertained by the sight of a girl crying uncontrollably under the arm of an extremely panicked-looking boy. This was _way_ out of Kellyn's league. Kate never cried, not in front of him. Rhythmi once got a little teary, but Keith quickly took that one over. What the heck was he supposed to _do_? He settled for silently rubbing her arm.

Thankfully, they were about to reach the hospital, and Mica again went through the process of trying to get herself under control. As they were heading through the doors she noticed for the first time that Kellyn had his arm around her. When had that happened? Before she could think on it any further, he took it away and she approached the front desk.

"Umm, there's something really wrong with my clampearl. She needs an examination," she said hesitantly to the woman behind the desk. Without looking up from her computer screen, where she seemed to be playing solitaire, she handed Mica a form and spoke in a bored voice that implied she said this phrase many times a day.

"Please wait over there and fill this out. A doctor will see you shortly."

"Thanks," Mica mumbled, taking the sheet and heading over to one of the steel chairs that lined the waiting room. "You don't have to stay here. You should probably head back to the school," she said to Kellyn, who had followed Mica to the waiting room.

It was a tempting offer. No, it was a _very_ tempting offer. Kellyn did not know how he was going to handle a distraught Mica, especially since he barely knew the girl. At some point he knew he would have to apologize for ripping her stitches when the bidoof had charged them, even though he still felt that it was hardly his fault. Not to mention he would be in a crapload of trouble if he didn't show up on time to the school on his first day back. And what if Kincaid came here to find her, and saw him with her? That promised to be a very unpleasant scene.

But he was a ranger, albeit an untrained and inexperienced one. It was his job to help people in need, despite how unpleasant the circumstances may be. And Mica most definitely needed _someone_, though there were probably people better than him to handle it. But he was the only one around, and he had no way of even knowing who these better people were, never mind contacting them.

Not to mention it wouldn't exactly help his plan to form some kind of relationship with Mica and get Keith off his back. He realized, somewhat indignantly, that this was probably an ideal time to endear himself to Mica. Especially since his first attempt ended in a complete failure.

So he sighed and told her that he would stay with her until she knew for sure what was going on with Biv. He tried not to sound at all reluctant about it, and mostly succeeded. He rather thought he came across sounding professional and dependable.

"Thanks," Mica muttered, somewhat confused. Her mind went back to when he placed his arm around her shoulders. What had that been about, anyway? It seemed a strange time to make a move on her…

No, that couldn't have been it. He was probably just trying to comfort her. Which was nice, if unasked for. She sighed, and began filling out the form handed to her.

She realized as she was doing this, with Kellyn sitting silently beside her, one hand awkwardly resting on her shoulder, that she knew next to nothing about Biv. She couldn't even answer half of the questions.

_What region was your pokemon born in?_

_Was your pokemon ever traded, adopted, or imported from a foreign country?_

_How old is your pokemon?_

_Has your pokemon ever had an extreme illness or injury?_

_Does your pokemon have allergies?_

Mica was feeling horribly inadequate as she wrote things like _don't know_, _maybe_ and _I don't think so_ for many of the questions. The only ones she was able to fill out properly were the ones asking of the nature of the pokemon's injury or sickness, and the behaviour of the pokemon prior to the incident. She hoped Kellyn wasn't reading this over her shoulder.

She realized she would have the exact same issue if something ever happened to Zefyre, which seemed likely given his injury and the promise of it reopening upon evolution. She didn't know too much more about Horatio. He was probably born in Almia, was fairly young, she thought, and was allergic to pecha berries- something that promised to be problematic when facing poison-types. Of course, she knew next to nothing about Tauros as well; probably born in Almia, maybe five years old? But that was just a random guess, based on his health and low amount of scars on his flank.

She promised herself that she would interrogate all of her pokemon with these questions when they got out of the hospital. Though how she would get the answers out of Tauros she wasn't exactly sure, since it was unlikely she would have learned to understand his speech already.

She considered calling Lucian for some real support and to let him know what had happened, but figured that might be seen as rude to Kellyn, who did seem to be trying very hard to comfort her. She would definitely call Lucian once she had more information about what happened with Biv though.

She sighed once she finished filling out the sheet and got up to hand it back in to the lady at the front desk. She then went back over to the waiting room and slumped back in her chair. Mica was inexplicably tired, and wished the doctor would hurry up and see them so they could get this whole ordeal over with. She hated not knowing what was going on. She needed to know what she had done wrong so that she could start fixing that flaw as soon as possible.

Kellyn, still unsure on if he should be speaking words of comfort or not, again placed his arm around Mica's shoulder. This whole situation was horribly uncomfortable.

His arm was…very warm, Mica noticed. The physical contact made her remember hugging Silver earlier, and his apparent pleasure in it. Though he would probably be even less helpful in this situation than Kellyn, she found herself wishing it was him sitting next to her instead. That would at least break the silence, and make the time pass faster.

After what felt like an eternity of waiting, a nurse came in and told Mica that the doctor would see her now. She got up to follow the nurse out, and Kellyn fell in step silently beside her.

The doctor was an elderly man, with white hair and fluff on his chin which he probably thought resembled a beard. He had thick glasses and wore his pants up to nearly his armpits underneath the white lab coat. He was looking over the form Mica had filled out earlier with a concerned expression, and greeted her and Kellyn rather seriously when they walked in.

"So," he began in a serious voice, "it says here that your clampearl has a chipped shell, despite reaching full maturity and being at a rather decent level?"

"Yes, sir. Would you like to see her?" Mica said.

"Please." Doctor Arden, as his nametag identified him, motioned to the paper-covered bed behind him, apparently designed for small to medium sized pokemon. Mica released Biv onto the bed; she seemed to have regained consciousness during her rest. She opened her shell a crack and peaked around, taking note of the clean white walls of the room she was in before closing her shell.

_Uh oh_, she thought to herself. _I know this scene…_

Dr. Arden tapped and stroked various areas of her shell, putting particular pressure on the hinge at the back that allowed Biv to open and close her shell and the edges of the chipped part. Biv didn't seem to mind any of this, and did not express any sign of pain when he poked at her injury.

He tried to gently coax her shell open and, when she refused, asked Mica to try and convince her to open her shell.

"Biv, could you please open your shell?" Mica asked gently, stroking her pokemon. "For me?" Biv reluctantly opened her shell, and the doctor promised he wouldn't do anything to hurt her.

He took a few swabs from various parts of the inside of her shell, and prodded and stroked around in the same manner that he had examined the outside of Biv's shell. Biv was none too impressed with this, and Mica suspected that she was resisting the urge to simple snap her shell shut on the man's hand. But she knew that this would happen eventually, and clamping the doctor would likely only lead to her being sedated anyway. So she tolerated it.

Once he finished with this he asked Mica if he could take a small blood sample from Biv for testing. Mica looked at Biv, who sighed slightly and made a sound that appeared to be an assent, and Mica told the doctor to go ahead.

The sample was, indeed, quite small. Though Mica assumed it had to be, considering Biv probably didn't have much blood to begin with. Dr. Arden left the room, promising that he would be back soon…he had an idea of what was wrong with Biv.

Mica sighed and went to sit beside Biv on the bed. For once, the clampearl did not instantly shut her shell as soon as she had the chance. She did stay stonily quiet though, refusing to acknowledge Mica's pats.

After about fifteen minutes, Dr. Arden came back in and sat down, asking Kellyn to leave as a matter of confidentiality. Kellyn, who had been watching the entire scene with an expression of concentration, nodded silently and left.

"Ms. Kincaid." Dr. Arden began. Biv, surprisingly, opened her shell all the way and tilted her head up in order to watch Mica's expression. "Your clampearl has a condition called Cellular Hyxlemia, also known as Kaslov's Curse, named after the researcher who discovered it. Have you heard of it?"

Mica slowly shook her head, though Biv, unnoticed by the two humans, nodded slightly, still observing Mica.

"Basically what it is is the opposite of pokerus, where a pokemon's cells reproduce at an astonishingly fast rate. Normally, when you train a pokemon, the physical exercise tears down muscles and causes the muscle cells to reproduce quickly and replace what was lost and then some, to make future workouts easier. Your clampearl's cells, however, go through the process of mitosis at a much slower rate, making it much harder to become stronger. It will also lose much of its health if not trained rigorously every other day. I assume that's what happened with your clampearl; left untrained and unnourished, it began losing its strength until it became as brittle as an extremely elderly clampearl."

"But I _have_ been training her." Mica insisted. "Not 'rigorously every other day,' like you said- I haven't been able to this past little bit- but we did a bunch back in Johto. She couldn't have gone downhill that fast in just that little while!"

"Yes, I believe you," he said calmly. "Which brings me to my next point. You say here you found her on the beach, and assumed she had been abandoned by another trainer?" Mica nodded. "Well, there is medication that pokemon with Cellular Hyxlemia are supposed to take that helps speed up cellular mitosis somewhat. I believe your clampearl's previous owner likely had her on this medication in hopes of raising her like a normal pokemon. However, like I said, it only helps a little, and is more for speeding the healing process than training. And, like most medications, this one has the side effect of causing the body to become dependent on it. After she was abandoned, she stopped receiving this medication. She had likely been on it for quite a while, and once it was taken away so abruptly, she was worse off than before. So, even with regular training, her strength was deteriorating rapidly.

"If this deterioration continues, her body will eventually become too weak to perform basic duties, such as regularly opening her shell to receive fresh air or even digesting food. Should this begin to happen, it would be kinder to simply euthanize her than let her waste away to nothing."

"Alright," Mica said, thoroughly frightened by the doctor's words. "So what do I do?"

"I'm going to give you a prescription for a double dose of Mitazac- that's the drug that will help her cell reproduction- and give you a workout schedule that will optimize her training. It's unlikely that she'll ever be a particularly powerful pokemon, but you should be able to keep her healthy, at least. Your trainer's salary will increase to cover the cost of the medication.

"It's imperative that you follow these instructions to a 't'. Any deviation- especially trying to take the drug away from her a second time- will result in her losing health even more rapidly than before. Once you start her on Mitazac her body will be nearly incapable of mitosis on its own. Understood?"

"Y-yes," Mica said. She was too relieved to hear that her pokemon wasn't going to waste away to even care that she wouldn't get stronger. "Of course."

"Her lifespan will still be significantly shorter, likely by at least twenty, probably thirty, years. She should only participate in light battling." Mica again told him that she understood, again not worrying too much about either of these facts thanks to her relief. Dr. Arden wrote her a prescription for Mitazac and printed off what their training schedule would be. Mica thanked him profusely, took the prescription and schedule, returned a somewhat shocked Biv to her pokeball and left to pick up the medication.

"One last thing," Dr. Arden said as she was leaving. "It says here that you don't know the age of this pokemon. For future reference, she appears to be around twelve or thirteen."

"Oh." _Twelve or thirteen…she's probably the oldest pokemon I have_, Mica thought. "Thanks."

Kellyn, who had been waiting outside, asked how it went. Mica quickly told him of Biv's condition, and of their workout schedule. Kellyn, who couldn't help being the logical one, pointed out that it would be rather difficult to follow this schedule, continue with her father's lessons, and train her other pokemon at the same time. Especially since Tauros promised to be a challenging pokemon to raise.

"Yeah, I know it's going to be hard." She agreed quietly. "But I don't have much of a choice, do I? She needs the attention."

"That's true…" He said, but didn't carry on the conversation since Mica was busy getting the prescription Biv needed.

"Thanks for staying with me, Kellyn." She thanked him as they were leaving the hospital. By this time it was getting dark out, and streetlamps were beginning to flicker on. She realized she should probably add something else on, like 'I'm glad I didn't have to go through that alone,' or something. The problem was, she would have much preferred it if Kellyn wasn't there, and it was just her and her pokemon. Maybe Silver or Lucian too. But that would be incredibly rude, since he was just trying to be supportive. "You're a really nice guy." Was what she settled for.

"No problem," he mumbled. He had, at least, learned a few things about checking a clampearl's health, even if he didn't feel any closer to Mica. Which reminded him that he still hadn't apologized for ripping her stitches. "Hey, by the way, I'm sorry about tearing your stitches back at the Academy."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Mica said mildly, thinking about how she wanted to call Lucian. "You were just trying to get me out of the way of the bidoof. I'm sorry you had to endure the wrath of my crazy father."

"Ha." Kellyn laughed once, glad that she seemed to agree that Kincaid had overreacted in suspending him. "Though I guess you're going to be the one enduring that wrath next."

"Yeah." She sighed. "Guess I am. Oh lord, he's going to be so mad that I caught that tauros. Don't think he'll care much about Biv though…"

"Hey." An idea occurred to Kellyn. "I could help you train her on my study period, so that it's less of a burden for you. I mean, there's only the one week left of school, but it's still something, right?"

Mica seemed to mull this over for a bit. "Yeah…yeah, that could be helpful. Thanks."

"No problem." Kellyn offered her a small smile. He was pretty proud of himself.

The bus ride back to Vientown was somewhat uneventful. Kellyn looked over the training schedule Mica had been given, and Mica considered how she was going to deal with her father, and when she would be able to question her pokemon about their past. She decided she'd wait until morning to give Lucian a call, since there wasn't any immediate danger and she would have a lot to deal with when she got back to the Academy.

A thought occurred to her as they got off the bus in Vientown. "Hey, wait a minute. When I was coming here from Pueltown the first time, Father and I got a bus all the way to the school."

"That bus only runs from Monday to Thursday."

"Oh, okay." She began drifting through her thoughts again, but was jarred back to reality as they approached the forest's edge. She remembered what happened last time she tried to go through a forest in the evening. It was even starting to rain, just like that time.

But she wasn't alone this time. She had Kellyn beside her, and something told her she was far less likely to be attacked when with someone else, especially a capable-looking man.

So she scooted a little closer to Kellyn, who took this a sign that it was okay to put his arm around her again. She didn't say anything, and the two of them started to head back to the Academy, bracing themselves for Kincaid's rage.

…

**A/N Mmmm, bit of a longer chapter. Hope it was worth it. I miss the earlier chapters- there was hardly anything serious in them, which made it easy to be funny. But there will be some relief to the tension in the next chapter.**

**I hear teenage boys think of sex every 15 seconds, or something like that. Silver was doing a decent job of hiding that, until now.**

**Cellular Hyxlemia and Mitazac are both completely made up. Sounds kinda real though, huh? I figure I can get away with that since the pokeworld would have different origins for their language, so I don't have to follow any kind of medical naming protocol. Yup.**


	22. Misunderstandings

"Welcome to the Ranger Union." three overly peppy receptionists chirped in unison as Silver and Ben approached the front desk in the Ranger Union's headquarters. The building was extremely tall- it towered over the surrounding trees by at least twenty feet. And that wasn't even including the massive and logic-defying tree that was actually growing out of the top of the place. Ivy creeped up the sides, and vine-like growths reached towards the ground in such a way that convinced Silver they were the tree's roots. He wondered if they ever found their way into the Union's water pipes in their quest for natural nutrients. It might have been a very imposing building, if it was not so boldly decorated in the Union's colours and symbol, and surrounded by smiling rangers.

The inside of the building was far less impressive. The ground was tiled in a soft yellow and the walls were painted an off-white. There was an escalator at the left end of the room, and a faux-wood desk manned by three receptionists in red suits at the back, with a window directly behind it.

"I'm Kayla, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me!" said the receptionist sitting in the middle of the desk.

"My name is _Cindy_," Silver winced as the woman's sing-song voice went up two octaves in pitch, "and if you would like to make an appointment with an Union official, I'd be happy to help you!"

"Hello, my name is Lacey. If you have any complaints you wish to file," the blonde sitting to the left of Kayla gave an excruciatingly fake smile, "please speak to me."

There was a storm outside, which Silver found appropriate. It even had the decency to let lose a massive thunder clap as the women finished their rap.

_These are receptionists Hell would hire_, Silver thought darkly.

"Thanks, girls!" Ben said brightly. "But I think my friend and I are just going to bunk here for the night, and I'll give him the ol' grand tour tomorrow morning."

Silver glared at Ben- he had not been informed of this little sleepover plan- but he did not argue. He was in a region that didn't even have pokecentres, for crying out loud! His options seemed to be either sleep here for the night or spend it out in the rain.

"Alrighty Ben," Cindy said, and started tapping away on her computer. "You're in luck- there's a double room open on the third floor for you to stay in."

"You really shouldn't be allowing non-Union workers to sleep on the third floor," Lacey said reproachfully. "That floor is for authorized personal only."

"Oh, lighten up, Lacey!" Cindy chirped at the woman. "It's _Ben_. He would never bring someone dangerous in here, would you honey?"

"Of course not!" Ben replied. "Silver here's as safe as safe can be." Pichu smiled as cutely as it could and strummed his ukulele. Kayla and Cindy cooed appreciatively. Lacey just smiled.

"I am _not _safe!" Silver snapped. "I'm dangerous! I've trained myself to destroy whoever stands in my way! I'm-"

"That partner of yours is just the _cutest_ thing!" Cindy squealed, interrupting Silver and leaning over the counter to stroke Pichu. "With his wittle guitar, and his earsie-wearsies."

Silver rather thought he might throw up. So _this_ is what true girliness looked like. He had to concede that Mica was not nearly as...demonic as these women. She must have been some other form of weak to have hugged him like that.

"Ohhh, you want to cuddle?" Pichu had hopped onto the counter, and was rubbing against the woman's hand. Only Silver seemed to notice the manipulative glint in his eye. "Come here, you little cuddle-wuddle bug!" Silver gagged. Pichu seemed to notice this.

"_Hey, I do what needs to be done, all right?_" Silver glared at Pichu, despising this show of cuteness. He thought he ought to take that ukulele and remind Pichu what it was for. Which was violence, of course.

"Awww, I think he wants to go back to his buddy." Kayla cooed, noticing that Pichu's last words had sounded somewhat serious. Cindy gave Pichu back to Ben, and the two of them started heading upstairs. Silver looked back at the three women as he went up the escalator, and another thunder clap went off, this time joined by a fork of lightening flashing across the window behind where the women were sitting. Silver made a mental note not to talk to anyone who worked in that building.

Ben yawned loudly. "I don't know about you, but I am _beat_."

"Hmph." Silver grunted, casting suspicious looks at the people working.

_They're _all_ smiling_, he realized, somewhat disturbed. _What kind of idiot is this happy to work for a stupid organization with such weak ideas?_

"Hey Ben, hey stranger! Have a nice day!" A young man in a green uniform said as he went by.

_The world is more filled with weaklings than I could have ever imagined_, Silver realized. Pichu turned and looked at Silver, noticing the grumpy and slightly freaked out look the boy was wearing.

"_If you want my advice_," Pichu said, catching Silver's attention, "_trust _no one." Silver simply snorted at the little mouse, and Pichu was reminded that Silver couldn't understand pokemon he related too. Yet. He made a mental note to let Croconaw know this advice.

The room they were staying in seemed fairly simple, and oddly similar to a room in a pokecentre. Plain wood flooring, two single beds on opposite sides of the room, a window, and neutral-coloured walls. Ben dramatically slumped into one of the beds. Silver gathered his things and went to the bathroom to properly prepare for the night.

He was surprised and annoyed to discover upon his return that Ben had turned out the lights and was apparently already in bed. Silver tried to feel his way through the room and quickly ended up slamming his shin into what appeared to be the edge of Ben's bed. He swore, clutched his leg, and fell ungracefully into Ben's bed.

"Whatcha doing?" Ben asked, no hint of suspicion or irritation in his voice. Just genuine curiosity.

"What the hell do you think I'm doing? I'm trying to go to bed, you idiot!" Silver tried to scramble out of bed, and found himself tangled up in the sheets.

"Ohhh, cuddle party?" Ben asked. And then Silver felt Ben's arms slowly wrap around his torso and begin to pull him closer, much to his horror. It took him a second to overcome his panic and react.

"No! Get the hell off me, you freak!" Silver began to thrash and scramble madly, trying to get away from Ben's surprisingly firm hold on him. "I'll freaking kill you!" Silver threaten- no. Silver promised.

He finally managed to break free, and fell with a resounding _thump_ on the floor. He was panting heavily and red in the face, not that that could be seen while the room was dark.

"Hey, everything okay in here?" A girl asked, opening the door and shedding light on the situation. Silver had dragged the blankets with him in his mad bid for freedom, and he realized that both he and Ben looked rather rumpled after that little incident.

_He's going to say something stupid_, Silver realized with crushing despair as Ben opened his mouth to speak.

"Not at all! Silver just got a little rough, is all." Ben smiled happily at the girl, who raised her eyebrows, nodded slowly, and turned to leave. Silver was fighting the urge to throw the lamp at her head.

And, perfectly timed, just before the door closed, Ben asked "Hey Silver, are these your balls?" and held up two pokeballs for Silver's inspection. Silver could hear a burst of laughter from the other side of the door, and considered bursting through it and tearing the girl's head off to ensure she would not tell anyone else what she had heard. And then he would come back and slowly kill Ben, to prevent further incidents.

Before he could decide on a course of action, however, there was a flash of light in the room as Ben released the two pokemon. One was Haunter, who looked around curiously, appreciating the darkened room. The other was...certainly not a pokemon Ben had seen Silver with before.

"Hey, Silver, I didn't know you had a magnemite," he said, examining the small magnet in the little light coming in through the window. His eyes then shone with comprehension. "Oh, this is the other pokemon you stole off Proton, right?"

"Get it back in the ball!" Silver snapped, grabbing the pokeballs and returning the two pokemon. He remembered how Koffing had tried to poison him when he found out Silver had stolen him, and Silver did not wish to repeat the experience with an electric type. He would tame the pokemon when he had his full team with him.

"Aw, hey. You should let it out so you two can get to know each other," Ben said.

"No. I'm going to bed." Silver was much too tired to start one of the 'pokemon are like people!' arguments with Ben.

"Oh, okay. Well, nighty night then." Ben sounded somewhat put out, and didn't say anymore. Silver huffed and made his way over to his own bed, this time without incident.

Once in the muffled darkness and quiet of bed, Silver again found his thoughts drifting back to Mica, trying to analyze what she did, why she did it...and occasionally when she'd do it again. Not that he wanted her to, of course.

"Hey, Silver?" Ben whispered. "Are you still awake?"

Silver considered staying silent and letting Ben assume he was asleep, but still found himself sighing and saying a reluctant, "yes."

"I- well, I was thinking. You helped me out a lot on that last mission...and even agreed to come to Almia with me..."

"I didn't _agree_-" Silver started.

"I'm not done yet." Ben interrupted, to Silver's surprise. "And, well...you're a little weird sometimes, but I think you'll be a good friend to have." _Well, you certainly wouldn't want me as an enemy_, Silver considered. "And...you asked me why I can't become a Top Ranger. What I did a little while ago..."

"Yes," Silver said, intrigued. "What could _you_ have possibly done?"

Ben seemed to take this statement as a testament to his abilities as a ranger, and felt rather flattered. But then he remembered what he was about to tell Silver, and the feeling vanished. "Well, the first big mission I ever got...it was in a place called Oblivia. It's a region that hardly anyone knows about, and it has really scarce human habitation. My mission was to stop a gang of pokemon thieves that had targeted the islands of Oblivia, and the legendaries that made their home there. But I let the bad guys catch a mewtwo, and they were right under my nose the whole time! And once they had Mewtwo, they...they..."

Ben paused to collect himself, still having not forgiven himself for this particular mistake. Silver and Pichu were silent. "They blew up Docle Island!"

"Docle island?" Silver asked.

"It's the island that had no humans on it, just a lot of pokemon. It's where Pichu and his buddies all grew up and lived. And...a lot of pokemon were killed by that blast, even though Booker managed to save some of them. The bad guys threatened to do it to the rest of the region, but Summer and I managed to stop them before that. But pokemon _died_ on that mission. And it's all my fault!" Ben started sniffling and breathing in that shaky, pre-cry kind of way. Silver was freaked out.

"H-hey, cut that out." Ben did not stop his shaky breaths, which were growing more uncontrolled. "Okay, listen. It can't be all your fault if this Summer chick was supposed to help you. And even besides that, shouldn't you blame the jerks with the bombs? It's just dumb to blame yourself." A slight pause. "Quit crying!"

Surprisingly, these words seemed to have some sort of positive effect on Ben. He was quiet for a bit, and then muttered, "I guess that's true..."

"It's totally true. Now be quiet and go to sleep. And don't ever let me catch you crying again."

"Okay. Thanks Silver."

"Hmph." Silver was blessed with another few seconds of silence, before Ben again spoke up.

"Hey, so who is that Mica girl you want to get, anyway?"

"She's my rival. Now shut up and go to sleep." Silver was beyond cranky by this point.

"_Just_ your rival?" Ben asked.

"Quit insinuating things you don't even know about! Now shut up and _go to sleep_. Before I come over there and _make_ you!"

Ben laughed a little. "Okey dokey, buddy! I just thought this would be a good time to share stuff." There was some rustling from Ben's bed, and he said no more.

"Tch. Idiot," Silver muttered. _As if you could figure out what the hell Mica is when even I don't know._

* * *

Kincaid was pacing the halls. A walking pace, of course, but an irritated one nonetheless. Even though there was still twenty minutes before everyone had to be in bed, none of the students were stupid enough to venture into those halls where Kincaid was prowling. The students upstairs had deemed them 'The swirly-haired devil's path,' in hushed voices to one another, fearing that the man would somehow hear them and subsequently eat their soul. Mr. Kincaid of room 106 was in a towering temper.

Kincaid's route took him from the front door, up the hall and then a sharp turn to the left, past the library, then back past the staff room, then up to the front hall again. This T-pattern pacing effectively kept all students trapped upstairs in the dorm, most of them huddled in their respective rooms. In fact, all but two were cowering in their colour-coordinated room, under their colour-coordinated blankets. These two were, predictably, Kate and Keith. They knew Kellyn was supposed to come back that day, and Keith had given Kate the rundown on what happened with the wild tauros. The two eavesdropped on Kincaid's mutterings, eagerly awaiting both news and drama.

"Ran away again...what a stupid girl...probably come back with a gunshot wound..." Kincaid was muttering to himself. He had not believed Janice's explanation that Mica had simply gone to the hospital to have her pokemon examined. No, he had blown up at the woman for allowing her to leave school property, certain that Mica had somehow fooled the school nurse and was even now using her new found freedom to find more inventive ways to leave the country.

This explosion of anger had left most of the teachers and staff cowering in their own respective rooms, in much the same way the students were. The only two that were not huddled under their blankets were Ms. April, who was stubbornly marking tests in her classroom (while also waiting and listening for some drama) and Principal Lamont. In fact, the only reason why Kincaid was confining himself to the school was because of Lamont's words.

"_Mica is not lying to you, Charles. You know as well as I that our nurse would not be easily fooled, nor would she lie to allow a student to run away._" He had said to Kincaid in his annoyingly reasonable tone.

"_With all due respect, sir, I _am_ going to find my daughter._"

"_Well, now. I think that would reflect very poorly on you as a teacher and a father. Not quite the kind of man I would want working for me._"

And with that oh-so-subtle threat to fire Kincaid, the man had agreed to wait for Mica to come back. Not that she would. Lamont had said that if she wasn't back by nine the next morning, it would be perfectly reasonable to go and begin a search for her. And so Kincaid was forced to wait until morning before he could storm Almia. It infuriated him.

But he could not lose his job. His boss- the slimy, immature idiot- had informed him that if Kincaid got fired from the Ranger Academy he could consider himself fired from Dim Sun as well. There were a lot of strings that needed to be given, not so much a pull as a hardy yank in order for Kincaid to land this job. He needed to keep it.

He looked at the clock. It was nine forty-five. Eleven hours, fifteen minutes to go before he could abandon the school and drag his daughter back. It was going to be a long night. He glared at the staff room door as he stormed past it, knowing that Lamont was in there, probably with a glass cup pressed against the door and an ear pressed to the bottom of it. Everyone wanted to hear the excitement that was sure to come. Because, of course, no one but Kincaid was stupid enough to think that Mica had ran away for a second time.

A few more laps. Kincaid looked at the clock again. Nine forty-seven. Kincaid fought the urge to hurl a potted plant across the room. Two minutes? That's all that had gone by? It felt like twenty! His hands curled into fists, and his pace became dangerously speedy. Almost bordering on a speed walk.

_Creak!_

Kincaid stopped. He was in front of the stairs leading to the upstairs dormitories. He spun around, looking down the hall at the front door that just opened. He was as still as an umbreon that had spotted its prey.

Mica was walking in the door. Had Kincaid been closer, or paying more attention, he might have noticed Mica's red-rimmed eyes, or her downright depressed expression. He might have noticed, with a jolt quickly followed by a knot of dread in his stomach, that Mica's similarities to her mother had never been clearer. He might have taken this as a sign, might have realized that Mica was in no condition to be reamed out, and that preventative measures had to be taken. But Kincaid didn't notice these things. He was distracted by the fact that Mica had not walked in by herself.

Kincaid was not pleased to see Kellyn accompanying his daughter. That was the boy that ripped her stitches. That boy was one of his three least favourite students. And that boy was taking far to big of an interest in his daughter.

"Deja vu," Kellyn muttered under his breath, as the door screamed his entrance and he walked into the school dripping wet. He was even about to be caught by Kincaid.

"Mica." Mr. Kincaid began taking long, purposeful strides down the hall. "We have things to discuss. But you," Mr. Kincaid turned to Kellyn. Kate, Keith, Ms. April and Lamont all leaned forward from their respective eavesdropping zones. "You're late. By nearly seven hours- suspended students are to return to school at the end of the school day on the last day of their suspension. You are also, once again, dripping water all over the floor." Kellyn opened his mouth to speak, but Kincaid was not done yet. He leaned in, and spoke in a hiss that was too quiet for any of the eavesdroppers to make out. "And what do you think you're doing with _my daughter_?"

Kellyn paled a bit. He had seen Mr. Kincaid angry on multiple occasions, and it was usually directed at him. This was something he should have been used to by now. But he had never seen Kincaid this angry; he looked quite ready to murder him. His face was not flushed with anger, it was composed and with a kind of calculating expression that Kellyn suspected would precede a murder. This was not an issue that would be resolved through detentions or suspensions. This was personal. He cleared his throat.

"I was accompanying Mica during her stay at the hospital, and I escorted her back to the school. It began to rain on the way here. That's why I'm late, and why I'm wet." _And why I'm with her_, he thought, knowing that Kincaid would hear the subtext.

"That was not your place," Kincaid said through clenched teeth. He narrowed his eyes at the boy, and Kellyn almost backed up a step. He would have, had his pride not stopped him.

"She was scared and alone. She needed help, and as a future ranger, I felt it my duty to aid her. I ensured that she had someone when she clearly needed it, and I ensured that she returned to the school safely. She needed someone to be with her. _No one else_ was there, so I stepped up," Kellyn told him, not at a shout but in a tone that very clearly conveyed anger. He jutted his chin up defiantly. As far as Kellyn was concerned, Kincaid was in no place to punish him.

As far as Kincaid was concerned, the boy deserved to be flogged, and then have salt water poured on his wounds. "You- how dare you speak to me like that! You broke the rules and you dare to defend what you did in such arrogant tones?"

"I didn't _break_ the rules, I followed the most important one. The one that says rangers are supposed to help those in need. Mica was in need. I'm a ranger. I helped her."

"You're not a ranger yet." Kincaid hissed. "And if you continue on like this, you never _will_ be. You think this isn't grounds for expulsion?" It wasn't necessarily true, but Kincaid was beyond angry at this point. Kellyn's face was just inches away, and Kincaid could practically feel his anger coursing through him. His daughter had been taken from him, and the boy who did it (in his eyes) was snarking and snapping back at him. He could feel his face heat up, felt his hands twitch as they ached to reach out and smack the idiot child senseless. He knew that wasn't allowed, but he had to do _something_. There was so much damn rage trying to fit inside him that he felt that if he didn't do something to let it out he was going to explode.

"Dad," Mica interjected, somewhat fearfully. She had lost most of the red in her eyes by now, and her expression had changed from depressed to afraid. "I did need someone there. Kellyn helped me a lot...one of my pokemon, she's really sick. She's gonna need a lot of care, and medication, and training, and-" Mica was working herself up again, and Kellyn almost groaned in exasperation. He really didn't want to deal with anymore crying. However, Kincaid held his hand up to Mica, cutting her off before she could really get going. He turned to her as his already overloaded mind focused in on one part of what she said.

"Medication?" He asked. "You think I'm going to pay for you to keep one half-dead little creature medicated? Mica, if the thing is that sick, you _are_ going to release it and let nature take its course."

"N-no! Dad, my trainer's salary will increase to cover the cost! You don't have to pay for anything, I swear." She was whining by the end of her explanation, she could hear it. And she hated how weak she sounded.

Kincaid nearly growled at this, but could not think of anything to say in response. Instead, he turned to Kellyn, took a deep breath, and tried to think of a way to satisfy his need to act out while still keeping both his jobs. He still rather liked the idea of flogging him, but doubted Lamont would go for that kind of thing. And, despite his earlier words, he also knew that there was no way he could convince Lamont to expel him. The man was bizarrely fond of Kellyn and his little friends, something Kincaid could not understand.

And then it hit him. His mouth curled into a small smile as he decided, in full, what Kellyn's punishment would be. "You are aware of the extra lessons I'm giving Isaac, correct?" Kellyn nodded slowly, and upstairs Kate and Keith shared a mystified look. "Every night leading up to graduation, you will be either assisting us in keeping the basement room tidy, or cleaning the hallway outside of it. Understood?"

"Yes, sir," Kellyn said, surprised that he was simply receiving detentions. He thought Kincaid would have wanted to go for something a bit more...nasty. Spending every night with the man was sure to be dreadful, true, but it could have been a lot worse. Though, of course, this was only the first part of Kincaid's plan.

"Good. Now, go to bed." Kellyn nodded and, shooting a sympathetic glance at Mica, left to go talk in hushed tones with Kate and Keith about what had just happened. After they had finished eavesdropping on Mica and Kincaid's conversation first, of course.

"Mica," Kincaid turned to his daughter, "Listen now, girl, and listen closely. If you _ever_ leave without telling me where your going again, I swear to the heavens above that I will have you locked away. Do you get that?"

Mica didn't actually. She wasn't too sure where she would be locked away. The most likely places she could think of were her room, an asylum, and some kind of military boarding school. She didn't actually ask where though- she didn't trust her voice not to crack. So she just nodded, and gathered her courage to tell her father about Tauros. At least he seemed distracted by whatever nasty plans he had for Kellyn.

"Um, Dad?" She said slowly.

There was something explosive coming, Kincaid could tell. He could hear it in her voice, could feel it in his bones. Whatever Mica was about to say was going to infuriate him. Which was not good- he only barely let the Kellyn boy go without incident.

"I, um, caught the tauros from earlier." She held up Tauros's pokeball. "He's one of my pokemon now."

Kincaid looked at the pokeball. He then, slowly, turned to look Mica in the eyes. She could see his chest heaving, and his face was beat red. She was practically trembling.

"Why," he snarled, leaning in close and grabbing her arm, "in the name of the pokegods would you do that? For mew's sake girl! I've had it up to here with you and your ceaseless stupidity!" His grip on Mica's arm had tightened uncomfortably, and he was fighting the urge to slam her into the wall. "What do I have to do to make you see clearly?"

"Dad, you're hurting-"

"Hush!" It hadn't been said loud enough for anyone to hear, but the last thing Kincaid needed was for Ms. April or Lamont to come storming out of their rooms. "You push and push and _push_ me to my very limits, child. Do you want me to snap? Do you want me to smack you? Arceus, Mica, why do you _do_ these things?" He paused here, and Mica realized he actually wanted an answer.

"Dad...I don't run around being stupid to make you mad. I don't even really think I'm being stupid." Her voice cracked, and she fought hard against the sob working its way up her throat. "I'm just...living. I know, I make stupid mistakes. But I don't do it on purpose...I just want to experience something other than what you give me."

"Damn it Mica, you _can't_. Not yet. Not now." He was actually shaking her as he said this, and knew in the depths of his mind that that was probably too far. But he wasn't thinking about Ms. April or Lamont or keeping his job now. "You're too young and too stupid and too...too damn short-sighted to go out on your own now! You're your own biggest enemy, and I have been trying to protect you. Why can't you see that? Arceus! You're too young!"

"Dad, the kids here are my age and they're going off to be rangers in a week!"

And here Kincaid had to literally bite his own tongue to stop his response from spewing out. In his mind, the students there were far from ready to go out into the world and get careers. They should still be at home, being taught by their parents and becoming adults. But to voice that would be to reveal his complete lack of faith in the entire school, something that would not exactly fit his profile as a teacher. He took a deep breath and slowly took his hand off Mica's arm and pinched the bridge of his nose with it.

"Just...just go to bed Mica," he said. "Just get out of my sight."

Mica almost didn't want to go. This was the first real talk she'd had with her father in years, and she had finally defeated the cry that had been threatening her all day. She wanted to keep shouting these opposing opinions they had, wanted to keep hearing that her father wasn't just some insane, rule-loving nazi, that he did genuinely have human emotions. But it had been a very long day- she was tired, and her dad looked like he had had it with her. So she slumped her shoulders and she went upstairs, where she was instantly ambushed by her her three ranger-to-be friends. She got words of comfort, and sympathy, and a weird group-clump that wasn't so much a hug as it was the three of them crowding around her.

Kincaid also retreated to his room. He of course did not get any friends there. There were no comforting words, no supportive pats on the back, and no group-clumps. Instead, he shouted wordlessly and kicked the bedpost. It wasn't enough to soothe him, so he grabbed a can of hairspray and flung it across the room. It still wasn't enough, he still felt like he was going to explode, or perhaps have a heart attack. He went to the en-suite bathroom and leaned against the sink, taking deep breathes.

_Just one more week_, he tried to comfort himself. _One more week, and then we're gone._

Besides, he still had his plan with Kellyn to tide him over.

* * *

**A/N Not as good as I planned, but still better than the original. A BIG thank you to RYNO IV for helping me get in touch with the inner rage in Kincaid- thanks to him, stuff actually happened in this chapter. It would have been crap without his help :)**

**And a big thank you to my beta, who has changed her name to ****TsukizuNya!** ** Her faithful error pointing has kept me within the boundaries of the English language. Probably. Not to mention, she came up with a name for the ship that I have inadvertently created. SilverxBen shall be now known as TrangerShipping- a combination of the words stranger, ranger, and trainer. Poor Silver...I never meant to do that to him D:**


	23. A Good MorningEventually

"_Mommy, look what a pretty day it is! Can't we go to the pond today?" _

_Mica was standing at the side of an unnaturally large bed. It towered a good ten feet over her. Pudgy hands reached up and tried to grab the edge of the impossible lofty bed. It was very dark in this bedroom; it always was. Even during the brightest days, thick curtains were pulled across the window, and the door was firmly shut. Everything in the room seemed completely oversized- the night table and television stand all towered just as tall as the bed._

_Mica wasn't supposed to come in this room- Daddy told her not to. Mommy was sad, and she had to let Daddy make her happy again. But Mica was sure that if she could get Mommy outside and play with her like she used to, everything would be okay again. Mica could make Mommy happy._

_A set of bright blue-green eyes peered over the bed. They would have been identical to Mica's, had they not been dulled with apathy and rimmed in black circles that indicated a lack of sleep. Dirty blonde hair fell over the edge, and seemed to reach down to Mica. As she looked, the eyes and the hair were all she could see._

"_Not today, Mica." A feathery voice echoed. The eyes disappeared over the edge of the bed, and the hair that had been falling down towards little Mica slowly began to creep away. "Mommy's not having a good day."_

"_N-No! You gotta come, Mommy!" She reached up and grabbed some of the retreating hair with her child's hands and let it pull her up the side of the bed. "It is a good day, Mommy. You just got to go see-"_

_Mica stopped talking. She had reached the top of the bed, only to find that her mother was not there. There was only a tumble of blankets and a mess of hair. The eyes that had peered down at Mica were gone, and there was no face visible that they could have belonged to. She began desperately searching through the forest of blankets, trying to find where her mother could be hiding._

_The room swirled, and her father's voice echoed out; "She's gone, baby." He was doing that thing that adults do, where they have to cry, but instead of letting it out they hold it in and it makes their voice sound all thick and pressured. "She's not here anymore."_

_The room kept swirling, and Mica kept searching. Of course her mother was still there- where could she have gone? She just had to find her. The problem was that something kept pulling her back by the shoulder, and she couldn't search properly._

"_Mica!"_

* * *

"H-huh?" Mica jerked awake, and found herself looking into the concerned faces of Kate and Horatio.

"You okay there, buddy?" Kate asked. "You were squirming all over the place and muttering to yourself."

"Yeah." Mica looked blearily around the room. It seemed to be fairly early- most of the girls were still in bed, and the sun wasn't quite all the way up. "Bad dream," she said by way of explanation.

"That sucks," Kate said sympathetically. Then, very seriously, "Do you want me to make a toodlepop?"

Mica looked at the clock. It was six-thirty in the morning. "A what?" Horatio had gone over to the edge of the bed, and was helping Zefyre climb up to join them.

"A toodlepop." Kate repeated, as if this would explain everything. Zefyre had made his way onto the bed with Horatio's help, and the two fire-types were squirming and cuddling into Mica's sides, with Zefyre carefully holding his tail away from the flammable bed.

"What's a toodlepop?" Mica asked.

"It's a really chocolate-y sweet hot drink that I used to make for my little sister when she was feeling upset. My mom made it for me when I was little too. It really helps make you feel better."

Mica smiled. "Thanks, Kate, but I'm good. I got these two." She gave Horatio and Zefyre a little squeeze, and they both squealed happily.

"Too bad! I've decided- I'm making you one anyway. I was going to last night, but it was kind of late. So this is to make you feel better about that fight, and your bad dream." Kate grinned widely, quite positive that she was some kind of saint. "Stay right there." And she left to go sneak into the kitchen and steal the necessary ingredients for her toodlepop.

"_What did you dream about?_" Zefyre asked once Kate had left, tilting his head to look at Mica through his good eye.

"My mom," Mica said simply. Zefyre looked at Horatio, who simply shrugged. He decided not to press the subject.

A few minutes later Kate returned holding a steaming, elaborately decorated drink in her hand. There was a swirl of whipped cream on the top, zigzags of caramel and chocolate syrup, and a dusting of colourful sprinkles on the top. Mica drank it while chatting with Kate, and did find the overt sweetness to be incredibly comforting. Once she had finished the drink, the two girls left the dorm and joined the rest of the students who had since woken up and gone to breakfast.

"Ah, ladies, good timing! Come, sit down, sit down." Keith hailed them as they walked out. "And may I say you both look absolutely radiant."

Kate and Mica looked at each other. Both had hair sticking up every which way, and were wearing their pyjamas. Mica giggled.

"I have sex hair, don't I?" Kate deadpanned, running her fingers through tatty hair.

"I like it," Mica said innocently. Keith nodded.

"It gives you that, 'I'm sexy and I know it' look." Kate smiled and luxuriously swung her hair back. "Anyway," Keith continued, "I was just saying to dear Kellyn here that we have been rather dull in the tom foolery department as of late."

"It's because I wasn't here to be your fearless leader," Kellyn said mildly, picking at his food.

"Whatever you say, bud." Keith rolled his eyes, and quickly stole half of Kellyn's toast.

"Fear not, comrades. While on my way back from the kitchen this morning I stopped by the chemistry lab and found something rather fun to try out during class."

"During Kincaid's class, you mean?" Keith said, smiling over at Mica. This was his idea of comfort for the girl.

Mica, however, had not been paying particular attention. She was dishing out food for her three pokemon (mixing Biv's pills in with her food) and staring intently at Tauros's pokeball.

"Do you think it's safe to let him out?" She asked. "I mean, he needs to eat. But do you think he'll go all nuts on us?"

"He was perfectly calm after being captured yesterday." Keith considered.

"Yeah, that's because that's what capturing does. What was he so mad about yesterday, anyway?" Kate asked.

"I don't know." Mica shrugged. "There was a pichu on his back, it kind of looked like it was giving orders."

"Eh, only one way to find out. I say let him out!"

"And I say ignore Keith and release him once you get outside. Then at least you won't be on the second floor of a building if he gets mad about something," Kellyn said, shooting Keith a dirty look.

"Heh, yeah, I think I'll do that." Mica replaced the pokeball in her pocket, noting with unease its irritated shuddering. "So what did you take from the chemistry room, Kate? And furthermore, why does a ranger's school offer a chemistry coarse?"

"Organic chemistry," Kellyn said shortly.

"Wellllll," Kate began, pleased to have the attention back on her, "Keith, do you remember that one time when we got in trouble for almost putting a certain chemical in the waste bucket with another certain chemical?" Kate asked mysteriously.

"Ah, yes. We never got told what would happen if we had put those two together." Keith nodded, remembering their old bat of a chemistry teacher and his complete overreaction.

"Well, I Moogled* it and found out. It's gonna be a fun class." And that was all Kate would say with regards to her plan.

The four of them finished their meal and headed off in separate directions. Mica to the grounds with her big bowl of food she thought Tauros might like, and the other three to their respective classes- they wouldn't be together in Kincaid's class until second period. Kellyn promised he'd join her in her training after lunch, when his study period was.

Mica made her way across the grounds, away from Ascension Square, the school, and Mr. Kaplan's and Ms. Clair's portable. She was about to open Tauros's twitching pokeball when she remembered her decision to call Lucian in the morning. Being a highly respected Pokemon League elite, she rather thought he'd have some tips on handling Tauros. So she pulled out her pokegear.

She listened to it ring a couple times, and then Lucian picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Hey, Lucian. It's Mica."

"Hey, Mica! How's it going?"

She sighed. "Could be better. Do you have a while?"

Thousands of miles away, across the sea and land, Lucian's brow furrowed and he took a seat. Training could wait. "Yes, I have a while. What's wrong?"

His brow crept closer together as he listened to Mica's story, and his eyes grew tense behind his violet-tinted glasses. This girl simply could not catch a break.

"Cellular Hyxlemia, hm?" He started once Mica finished her story. "I knew a trainer a while back who had a growlithe with the same condition. Her life was significantly shortened, but thanks to her trainer's dedication, it was also a lot more fulfilled and happy than a lot of pokemon get. If you dedicate yourself, Biv will be the same way. She'll have a happy life, and probably not even care that she can't battle like the rest of her teammates. Even with 30 years cut off her life, Biv can still live to be around forty years old with the proper care. Clampearl have very long lifespans."

"R-right. Thanks."

"As for your Tauros...I've never raised one myself, but they're known to be rather combative and quick-tempered. Despite that, they still have individual personalities. I can only give you so much advice without actually being there is to observe your new pokemon. What does he like? What doesn't he like? What are his quirks and triggers? Once you get to know him and understand why he does what he does, it'll be easy for you to control him and form a bond. Until that happens though...make sure to be ready to recall him if things go south. He'll likely be cranky about it, but at your level it's better safe than sorry."

"That makes sense." Really, he hadn't told her anything that she didn't already know. But it made her feel more confident having such specific questions in the forefront of her mind. "Thanks Lucian. Really, I feel kind of better now."

"Glad to hear it," he said, then frowned. "How are you doing over there? Really?"

Mica paused, understanding that this question went beyond her problem with Tauros. "It's...tough sometimes. But I have friends here, and they're really great at being supportive and stuff, even if they are a little too nosey. But still, they're good people. Kate made me a toodlepop."

"That's...good to hear." _I guess..._ Supportive friends were good, but Lucian's mind had become hung up on who 'Kate' was and what in the world a 'toodlepop' consisted of.

"Yeah...what about you? How are you doing?" As she asked this, Mica realized that they had never really talked about Lucian and his life. Lucian himself was a bit surprised, and pleased, to hear the question.

"Fairly well, thank you."

"What's life like at the League, anyway? I don't think I was there for long enough to really get it."

Lucian smiled, and happily told her about his coworkers and the regular challengers that came through. It had been a while since he had gotten to talk about himself. People never really cared to ask him.

* * *

"Wake up." Silver was standing over Ben's bed, having grown tired of waiting for him to wake up. He himself had been awake and prepared for the day for the past hour. Though he wasn't too keen on sticking with Ben, he wasn't about to venture out of his room and into ranger headquarters alone. Something about the place just rubbed him the wrong way. It was likely all the smiling.

Ben grunted, smacked his lips a few times, and continued snoozing. The boy was sprawled out on his back, so it was quite easy for Silver to ball his hand into a fist a drop it onto Ben's stomach. Forcefully.

"_Oomph_!" Ben curled into a ball and blearily opened his eyes. Noticing the glaring redhead above him, he quickly shut his eyes again and rolled over. "Oh no."

"Get up, you lazy blob. I want to leave."

"What time is it?"

"Eight in the morning! You're sleeping in." Silver, surprisingly, was a major morning person. And applied words such as 'lazy,' 'useless,' and (of course) 'weak' to anyone who enjoyed sleeping in past seven thirty. _Eight_ was simply unacceptable. He was a busy man. He had things to do. Like figuring out how to get out of East Shit Nowhere when he had no valid ID or money to purchase any kind of transportation tickets.

"Eight in the _morning_?" Ben asked, incredulous.

"Yes," Silver said, relieved to have finally gotten through to Ben. "Eight in the morning."

"Oh, okay." Ben once again made himself comfortable. "Well, that's not sleeping in then."

At which point Silver grabbed Ben's arm and dragged him out of bed and onto the floor with a resounding '_thunk_'.

"Up. Now," was all he said.

By nine the two boys were exiting the Union and Silver was watching moodily as Ben captured a conveniently located staraptor, and not to transport Silver out of Almia.

"Sorry I got to leave you all alone like this." Ben apologized as he mounted the massive bird.

"_I doubt he minds_." Pichu drawled from Ben's shoulder, ignored by all.

"But you know, protecting people and pokemon is my job!" Ben continued excitedly, holding his styler aloft. "If you keep going down this path, you'll find Altru Park. There'll probably be something interesting going on there. Make sure you don't take a wrong turn and end up at Peril Cliffs. It's known for bad accidents involving novice hikers."

"_And convenient accidents involving people you don't like!_" Pichu smiled adorably.

"If nothing's happening in Altru Park, keep going east and you'll find Chroma Highlands. It's perfect for training!"

"Right." Silver had absolutely no intention of stopping in Altru Park. If he was going to be stuck here, he might as well get some training in. He might also be able to think of a plan to get Mica away from the idiots surrounding her before she became even more like them. He wouldn't stand for his rival to become some wishy-washy little wimp.

Because that's what he had decided Mica was. His rival. She was faintly insane, it was true, but she was also clearly a decent battler. After all, she had tied against _him_. Even allowing for his weak pokemon, this was quite a feat. Therefore, Mica was his rival. And the hug had been some kind of ingenious psychological warfare designed to confuse him.

"Well, have fun!" And with a wink and a wave and a 'fare-thee-well' Ben was gone from Silver's side, where he had been constantly for the past two days. The longest two days of Silver's life. Silver huffed, turned on his heel and started down the path that would lead him to Altru Park, and later to Chroma Highlands.

He trudged down the path for a good thirty minutes, glaring at the various happy-go-lucky pokemon surrounding him. They didn't even pause in the various forest-related activities to watch Silver as he went by, so used to human company were they.

_Stupid pokemon...don't even have enough instincts to realize I'm not like the lovey-dovey humans that they're used to!_

Their nonchalance about his presence grated on his nerves until he finally snapped as a beautifly flew right up to his face before flapping casually higher to dodge him. Infuriated by this disrespect, Silver Violently chucked Zubat's pokeball at the easy-going beautifly.

"Teach it some manners with Wing Attack, Zubat!" Silver commanded. Zubat obediently began flying at Beautifly with powered-up wings. Being speedy and accurate by nature, he managed to land a direct hit on the bug. Confident that the single, super-effective attack would be enough to finish Beautifly, Silver prepared to recall Zubat back. "Good. Now, return...huh?"

Beautifly had not been knocked out by Zubat. In fact, it didn't even look like it had been phased by the attack. It fluttered within range of the eyeless pokemon and promptly hit it with Stun Spore.

"The hell? Whatever. Zubat, Wing Attack again! And hit it properly this time." Quite positive that Zubat must have simply grazed Beautifly with his wings, Silver crossed his arms and watched, assuming the knock out hit would be next.

"Bat zu! Zu!" Zubat, however, knew that he had nailed Beautifly dead on. Paralysed by a combination of the Stun Spore and his own apprehension, Zubat could only watch as Beautifly began to flap her wings harder than before. Silver dust began to whoosh off her wings and into Zubat's body, revealing themselves to be as hard and sharp as glass shards. The flapping grew harder, pushing the silver dust on harder and faster into Zubats body and kicking up so much dirt that Silver had to block his eyes.

Finally, the Silver Wind attack ended and the dust died down, revealing a thoroughly defeated Zubat. Silver's jaw dropped, and the hand holding Zubat's pokeball fell limply at his side. Beautifly looked at him expectantly and then, seeing that the boy was clearly in shock, fluttered down to where Zubat was lying.

"_Hey, are you okay?_" She asked sweetly, but then ruined the effect slightly by poking him roughly in the stomach with one of her stubby arms.

"_Not really. Body and pride are both hurting pretty bad_," he replied glumly.

"_Aw, don't worry about it! Least you got the guts to battle- I was such a coward when I was a wee wurmple_!" When Zubat only grunted she helped prop him up with her stubby arms. Silver watched this interaction with suspicious eyes, still unable to believe Zubat had been taken out in one blow. "_Here, this'll help_." And she somehow managed to use Morning Sun on Zubat, who could feel his wounds healing as the glass-like dust worked itself out of his body.

"_Th-thanks_," Zubat said, surprised by this totally random hospitality.

"_No problemo! Have a nice day, cutie_," she said, and then fluttered off into the forest. Zubat turned to Silver, utterly confused.

"Did that actually just happen?" Silver asked no one in particular, being not much better off than Zubat. He examined his pokemon, and realized that he was left with no evidence that he had done anything more than simply release him from his pokeball. No sign of such a bizarre battle was left anywhere- even the dust had settled back to where it originally was. "Whatever. Return."

A few more wild encounters, however, proved that Beautifly was not a freakishly strong pokemon in her area. All of the pokemon Silver encountered easily KO'ed his pokemon in a single hit. Even the ralts he sicced Haunter on.

_I don't believe this...Ben wasn't joking when he said there were loads of strong pokemon here_, Silver thought, eyes lighting up with greed like a child on Christmas morning. _All I have to do is train Haunter up just enough to be able to hit one with Curse and I'll be able to catch it_. Another delightful thought occurred to him. _And it won't even be illegal! I get off Scott-free!_

And so it was with a spring in his step that Silver emerged into Altru Park, looking around vaguely at the neatly trimmed grass and precisely placed fountains that dotted it. In the centre was a prettily painted white stage on which what appeared to be a four-piece band was setting up. Ignoring this, Silver peered across the park until he spotted what must have been the path to Chroma Highlands. He began deliberately striding across the park towards the path, pausing only once when he was about ten feet in front of the stage with the band on it.

"Holy Arceus- my ears!" He bellowed, gripping his ears against the horrifying shriek that was coming out of the guitar of the man in the middle.

"Whoa...easy there, bro," said the one on the end, in a white overcoat.

"Hmmm, do you think I was a little sharp there?" He asked mildly, and began fiddling with the strings on his guitar. The girl at the other end giggled.

"A touch," she said.

"That," Silver glared at the four, "was the most horrific bit of noise I have ever heard. If you don't have any talent, you shouldn't be on a stage."

The one with the guitar raised one eyebrow at Silver. "Well, well. And good morning to you too," he said, being deliberately polite just for the sake of further annoying Silver. "My name is Billy, this is Garret," the bassist of the band played a short riff, "Clyde," the drummer played, "and Tiffany," the girl with the violin smiled and played a few flirty notes. "We are ever so glad to meet you. What's your name?" By now Silver had gotten a closer look at the four, and he realized that they all had similar feature and platinum blond hair. Clearly, the four were related.

"Go piss on a rope." Silver snarled, unable to think of a better comeback to Billy's overt politeness. Even though he was clearly still being rude at the same time. The complexity of the insult was kind of overwhelming for poor Silver.

"Tsk. Rude. If that rope is used to tie a gag to stop that unholy little mouth of yours, I'll gladly piss on it. Deal?"

"Billy. Really, in front of little Tiff?" Garret said, feigning shock and motioning to the girl.

"Oh please." Silver scoffed. "She has very clearly said, heard, and _done_ dirtier things than that," Silver said, pointedly eyeing the girl's incredibly short dress.

"Hey, who do you think you are?" The drummer, Clyde, snapped and made a move like he was going to go after Silver, who promptly readied Croconaw's pokeball.

"Calm down Clyde. No need to start something in the middle of the park. It wouldn't be good to be in the middle of a fist fight when the Altru CEO comes along. You do remember how badly we need to make a good impression, right?"

"Is that not him there?" Asked Garret, eyes focusing on something in the distance.

"I believe it is," said the guitarist, catching where his brother was looking. He directed his gaze at Silver. "Scram."

Silver, however, had stopped paying attention to the band's conversation. He instead was eyeing a man who had split off from the two important looking, suit wearing businessmen and was heading off down the path Silver had just left. Unlike his two cohorts, this man was not wearing a suit, nor was he particularly important looking. He was wearing a simple black jumpsuit. A very familiar black jumpsuit.

_Team Rocket?_ Silver though, incredulous. _Here? In Almia? What the hell are they doing? Are they stalking me? Idiots! _He gripped Croconaw's pokeball and quickly slunk after the man. _I don't care why they're here- they've crossed my path again, and now I have to destroy them!_

A small smile creeped onto Silver's face as he followed the man, anticipating violence. He was back in the forest within minutes.

"Weird kid." The guitarist commented mildly, before turning to greet the two CEOs.

* * *

***Moogle. It's what Google would be called in the pokemon world. Yes.**

**An update :o And a late one. Shit happens. Life happens. Blah.**

**This chapter is dedicated to Skyfire146- the 100th reviewer for this story! * confetti falls * Be on the watch for a one-shot in the Definition of Weakness universe that she has requested of me. It'll be up. I swear. **


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